What do you find most impressi
What do you find most impressive about Foucault's History of Sexuality, (Vol. 1)? And what are its main deficiencies?Michel Foucault 'a History of Sexuality Volume 1' is marked by his application of the concept of power relations in modern society, particularly in respect of sexual history. In the realm of sexuality, and that which is sexual, power plays an undeniably integral role, Foucault offers us a definition of that sexual power which leads to a greater insight into both sexuality and society alike, and is perhaps the most impressive feature of this work.The benefits of Foucaults approach can be viewed best when we take a holistic view of power relations, and Foucault relates a vision of power mechanisms operable within society, which allows us to intellectually depart from the concept of conflict between the opposing forces of oppressor and oppressed, and to speak more openly of power and discourse in their more general and everyday occurrences. Foucaults offers a new framework for thought on both power and sexuality, and it is from within this framework that one is drawn, perhaps, to make the most relevant criticisms. Foucaults own relationship with the discourse, and in particular his endeavor to remain separ
' the Nouvelle Philosophie and Foucault', economy and society vol. , Foucault A Critical Reader (Ed Hoy, D. , The History of Sexuality (volume 1), 1976, Penguin, LondonHoy, D. In this sense it is perhaps possible to see how Foucaults own opinions on the morality of sexuality are apparent, and in this sense also possible to suggest that they were formed equally as an integral part of the unending theoretical bat and ball game of Discourse, and for all Foucaults endeavors to retain his impartiality in regard of discourse, it is perhaps understandably apparent that he does not always maintain his observational distance entirely. Discourse at a variety of levels, for Foucault, has been the driving force for commonly held beliefs and accepted sexual practices over the course of the modern era. For this reason Foucault is faced with the task of first showing how it is that his own social theory is methodologically at all able to adopt a foreign or alien perspective toward its own culture, since, like all the other sciences, it is initially bound to the form of thought prevailing in its own time (Honneth, A. p 110)When reading a History of Sexuality Volume 1 it is arguably apparent that Foucault is dealing with a particular aspect of western culture for which he holds both a deep fascination and strength of conviction. [Foucault] perceives clearly that institutions are not merely imposed constructs, yet has no apparatus for dealing with this fact, which entails that following a convention is not always equivalent to submitting to a power. , Michel Foucault : The Will to Truth, 1980, Tavistock Publications, New York. We all appreciate power as an influence in all that we do in our everyday life's, but perhaps few of us appreciate what that illusive factor termed power truly is, much less the source and motivation for its application. We must immerse the expanding production of discourse on sex in the field of multiple and mobile power relations (Foucault, M. The interplay between power and discourse is key to Foucaults vision of the influence power has in sexuality. p 98)Discourse then is the method by which power asserts its influence, and just as each individual participates in discourse so too they participate in the power it exerts.
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