EBOOK
About
Réal Fillion teaches philosophy at Laurentian University. His areas of specialization are the philosophy of history, and social and political philosophy. Fillion has published a number of articles on the work of Michel Foucault and is a member of the advisory board of Foucault Studies.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INTRODUCTION - MAKING SENSE OF HISTORY MAKING SENSE OF US
PART I: PHILOSOPHICAL UNDERPINNINGS
CHAPTER ONE – FOUCAULT AND THE IDEA OF HISTORY
CHAPTER TWO: HISTORY CONSIDERED GENERALLY – THINKING FREEDOM THROUGH DOMINATION
CHAPTER THREE – FOUCAULT AFTER HYPPOLITE: TOWARD AN A-THEISTIC THEODICY
PART II – THE HISTORIES
CHAPTER FOUR: MADNESS AND THE CUNNING OF REASON
CHAPTER FIVE – A CONTRASTIVE HISTORY OF PUNITIVE REASON
CHAPTER SIX – FROM HISTORY AS SELF-AWARENESS TO SELF-WARINESS THROUGH HISTORY
CONCLUSION – THE INDEFINITE AND UNDEFINED WORK OF FREEDOM AS HISTORY
WORKS CITED
This work underscores the need to examine history philosophically, not only to better appreciate how it unfolds and relates to our own unfolding lives, but to better appreciate our free engagement in this changing world. Linking a conception of ourselves as free beings to the historical process was of central importance to the classical speculative philosophies of history of the nineteenth century, most notably Hegel's. Michel Foucault's work is often taken to be the antithesis of this kind of speculative approach.
This book argues that Foucault, on the contrary, like Hegel, sees freedom as tied to the self-movement of thought as it realizes and shapes the world. Unlike Hegel, however, he does not see in that self-movement the process of Spirit reconciling itself with the world and thereby realizing itself as freedom. Rather, he sees in the freedom at the core of the self-movement of thought a possible threat around which that movement consolidates itself and gives shape to the world.
Foucault's work is therefore not a simple rejection of Hegel's speculative philosophy of history, but rather an inversion of the manner in which history and freedom are related: for Hegel history realizes or actualizes the "idea" of freedom, whereas for Foucault freedom realizes or actualizes the "materiality" of history. A work that underscores the need to examine history from a philosophical perspective.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INTRODUCTION - MAKING SENSE OF HISTORY MAKING SENSE OF US
PART I: PHILOSOPHICAL UNDERPINNINGS
CHAPTER ONE – FOUCAULT AND THE IDEA OF HISTORY
CHAPTER TWO: HISTORY CONSIDERED GENERALLY – THINKING FREEDOM THROUGH DOMINATION
CHAPTER THREE – FOUCAULT AFTER HYPPOLITE: TOWARD AN A-THEISTIC THEODICY
PART II – THE HISTORIES
CHAPTER FOUR: MADNESS AND THE CUNNING OF REASON
CHAPTER FIVE – A CONTRASTIVE HISTORY OF PUNITIVE REASON
CHAPTER SIX – FROM HISTORY AS SELF-AWARENESS TO SELF-WARINESS THROUGH HISTORY
CONCLUSION – THE INDEFINITE AND UNDEFINED WORK OF FREEDOM AS HISTORY
WORKS CITED
This work underscores the need to examine history philosophically, not only to better appreciate how it unfolds and relates to our own unfolding lives, but to better appreciate our free engagement in this changing world. Linking a conception of ourselves as free beings to the historical process was of central importance to the classical speculative philosophies of history of the nineteenth century, most notably Hegel's. Michel Foucault's work is often taken to be the antithesis of this kind of speculative approach.
This book argues that Foucault, on the contrary, like Hegel, sees freedom as tied to the self-movement of thought as it realizes and shapes the world. Unlike Hegel, however, he does not see in that self-movement the process of Spirit reconciling itself with the world and thereby realizing itself as freedom. Rather, he sees in the freedom at the core of the self-movement of thought a possible threat around which that movement consolidates itself and gives shape to the world.
Foucault's work is therefore not a simple rejection of Hegel's speculative philosophy of history, but rather an inversion of the manner in which history and freedom are related: for Hegel history realizes or actualizes the "idea" of freedom, whereas for Foucault freedom realizes or actualizes the "materiality" of history. A work that underscores the need to examine history from a philosophical perspective.
Related Subjects
Extended Details
- SeriesPhilosophica