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Foucault'S Analysis of Power'S Methodologies
Foucault'S Analysis of Power'S Methodologies
METHODOLOGIES
G a r y Alan Scott
Siena College
locus shifts again from the Classical Age to the Modern period, from
what Foucault calls a "symbolics of blood" to an "analytics of
sexuality."3 On the one hand, Foucault shows how the locus of
sovereignty changes in the Classical Age without either its structure
being called into question or its theoretical warrant being exhibited;
on the other hand, he illustrates just how paradoxical was the
Classical model of sovereignty by utilizing the term sovereignty
himself in all its richness and ambiguity. He refuses to adhere strictly
' Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Vol. I, trans. Robert Hurley (New
York: Random House, 1978), 89. I follow James Miller in referring to this volume
as Tlu> Will to Know. This is a more literal translation of Foucault's French title, La
Volente de savoir. Because Hurley's English translation is entitled 77ie History of
Sexuality: Volume 1, the notes will reflect this choice. Sec James Miller, Vie
Passion of Michel Foucault (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993).
2
I am grateful to John Carvalho of Villanova University for this phraseology and
for his many helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. I would also like to
express my appreciation for the thorough and incisive comments offered by Scott M.
Christensen, of the University of California at Riverside, in his formal response to an
earlier version of this paper delivered at the APA Pacific Division Meeting in Los
Angeles, California on April 2, 1994.
3 The History of Sexuality, V. I, 148.
4
Michel Foucault, The Order of Things (New York: Random House, 1970), 277.
FOUCAULT'S ANALYSIS OF POWER'S METHODOLOGIES 127
5 Foucault docs point out the irony in the way that absolute monarchy is viewed as
illegitimate, even though it has its origin in law. See his discussion of this issue in
The History of SexualitY, V.I, pp. 87-88.
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6
Ibid., p. 89. For Foucault, psychoanalysis from Freud to Lacan has failed to
extricate sex from the old techniques of power. I will return below to this problem.
Cf. also Part 5 of The Wilt to Know.
FOUCAULT'S ANALYSIS OF POWER'S METHODOLOGIES 129
7
Foucault gives his clearest definition of power on pp. 92-93 of The History of
Sexuality V.I, at the very beginning of the section entitled "Method."
8
Sec especially the essay, "Power and Truth," in Power/Knowledge: Selected
Interviews and Other Writings (1972-1977), 109-133. Foucault vitiates the
humanistic position, which rests on an unshakable faith in the progress of history,
and on the belief in an inner being of man that needs to be liberated or uncovered.
For Foucault, it is an illusion to assume that philosophy can stand outside of
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