On The Government of the Living: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1979–1980

384 Pages·2014·9.42 MB·English

by  Michel Senellart, François Ewald, Alessandro Fontana (eds.)

On the Government of the Living
Also in this series:
SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED
(North America & Canada )
ABNORMAL
(North America & Canada)
HERMENEUTIC S OF THE SUBJECT
(North America & Canada )
PSYCHIATRIC POWER
SECURITY, TERRIT ORY, POPULATI ON
THE BIRTH OF BIOPOLITI CS
THE GOVERNMENT OF SELF AND OTHERS
LECTURES ON THE WILL TO KNOW
Forthcoming in this series:
PENAL THEORIES AND INSTITUTIONS
THE PUNITIVE SOCIETY
SUBJECTIVITY AND TRUTH
MICHEL FOUCAULT
On the Government of the Living
LECTURES AT THE COLLÈGE DE FRANCE
1979–1980
Edited by Michel Senellart
General Editors: François Ewald and Alessandro Fontana
English Series Editor: Arnold I. Davidson
TRANSLATED BY GRAHAM BURCHELL
ON THE GOVERNMENT OF THE LIVING
© Éditions du Seuil/Gallimard 2012, edition established under
the direction of François Ewald and Alessandro Fontana, by
Michel Senellart. Trans lation © Gra ham Burchell, 2014
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-4039-8662-7
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CONTENTS
Foreword: François Ewal d and Alessan dro Fontana xii
Translator’s note xvii
one 9 JANUARY 1980 1
The hall of justice of Septimius Severus. Comparison with the
story of Oedipus. ⵒ Exercise of power and manifestation of the
truth. Alethurgy as pure manifestation of truth. No hegemony without
alethurgy. ⵒ Constant presence of this relation between power and
truth up to modern times. Two examples: royal courts, raison d’État,
and the witch hunt (Bodin). ⵒ The project of this year’s course: to
develop the notion of government of men by the truth. Shift with regadr
to the theme of power-knowledge: from the concept of power to that
of government (lectures of the two previous years); from the concept
of knowledge (savoir) to the problem of the truth. ⵒ Five ways of
conceiving of the relations between exercise of power and manifestation
of the truth: the principles of Botero, Quesnay, Saint-Simon, Rosa
Luxemburg, and Solzhenitsyn. The narrowness of their perspectives. The
relation between government and truth, prior to the birth of a rational
governmentality; it is formed at a deeper level than that of useful
knowledge.
two 16 JANUARY 1980 22
The relations between government and truth (continued). ⵒ An
example of these relations: the tragedy of Oedipus the King. Greek
tragedy and alethurgy. Analysis of the play focused on the theme of
vi C o n t e n t s
the kingship of Oedipus. ⵒ Conditions of formulation of the orthon
epos, the just speech (la parole juste) to which one must submit.
The law of successive halves: the divine and prophetic half and the
human half of the procedure of truth. The game of the sumbolon.
Comparison of divine alethurgy and the alethurgy of slaves. Two
historical forms of alethurgy: oracular and religious alethurgy and
judicial alethurgy founded upon testimony. Their complementarity in
the play.
three 23 JANUARY 1980 47
Oedipus the King (continued). ⵒ The object of this year’s lectures:
the element of the “I” in procedures of veridiction. As a result of
what processes has telling the truth in the first person been able to
establish itself as manifestation of truth? Relations between the art
of governing men and self-alethurgy. ⵒ The question of Oedipal
knowledge. In what does his tekhnē consist? Contrast with the
ways of being of Creon and Teiresias. Specifically Oedipal activity:
euriskein (finding, discovering). The search for clues (tekmēria).
Characteristics of tekmērion. Oedipus, operator of the truth he seeks.
Discovery as art of government. ⵒ The power of Oedipus. Central
place of this theme in the play. Oedipus, incarnation of the classic
figure of the tyrant; victim of his tyrannical usage of the procedure
of truth that he himself puts to work. Difference from the gnōmē
(opinion, advice) by which he resolved the riddle of the Sphinx and
saved the town.
four 30 JANUARY 9810 72
Oedipus het Ki(negn d): why Oedipus is ⵒnot punished.
Reminder of the general diepdr obletmhi s styuear: the genesis of the
relations between government of men, manifestatiodn of the truth, an
salvation. jeRcteion of analysis ind eolotgeyrm. s Thoef oreticial work
as movement of cdoinstpilnaucoeumse nt. Newp lanaextion of the
approach doapted: posing the question of the jecrte lationship the sub
maintains with the trubtahs is ono f thhei s pr elatpiotonw sheri. t A
the basis of this approdaec h, of an systaetmtiatutic suspicion with
regard ptoow er: the non-necessityp oweorf walhla tever it may be.
Difference from anarchism. An anarcheoldogey. oRf eturnknowle
Conten t s vii
to the analyses of (a) madness, (b) crime and punishment. ⵒ The
double sense of the word “subject” in a power relationship and in
manifestation of truth. The notion of truth act and the different modes
of insertion of the subject (operator, witness, object) in the procedure of
alethurgy. ⵒ Field of research: early Christianity. Perspective of this
course: to study it not from the point of view of its dogmatic system, but
from the point of view of truth acts. Tension in Christianity between
two regimes of truth: that of faith and that of confession (aveu).
Between Oedipus and Christianity, examination of alethurgy of the
fault in Philo of Alexandria.
five 6 FEBRUARY 1980 93
Studying Christianity from the point of view of regimes of truth. ⵒ
What is a regime of truth? Reply to some objections. Consequences
for the anarcheology of knowledge. Work to be put in the perspective
of a history of the will to know. ⵒ The act of confession (aveu) in
Christianity. Confession (confession), in the modern sense, the result
of a complex regime of truth at work since the second century C.E. The
three practices around which the connection between manifestation of
truth and remission of sins was organized: (I) baptism, (II) ecclesial
or canonic penance, (III) examination of conscience. ⵒ (I) Baptism
in the first and second centuries; starting from Tertullian: from the idea
of the two ways to that of original stain. The three matrices of moral
thought in the West: the models of two ways, the fall, and the stain.
six 13 FEBRUARY 1980 114
Tertullian (continued): the relation between purification
of the soul and access to the truth in the preparation for and
act of baptism. Reminder of the general framework of this analysis:
the relations between truth act and ascesis. Novelty of Tertullian’s
doctrine. ⵒ The problem of the preparation for baptism. Tertullian’s
argument against the Gnostics and the attitude of some postulants
towards baptism. His doctrine of original sin: not only perversion
of nature, but introduction of the other (Satan) in us. The time of
baptism, a time of struggle and combat against the adversary. Fear,
essential modality of the subject’s relationship to himself; importance
of this theme in the history of Christianity and of subjectivity. ⵒ
viii C o n t e n t s
Practical consequence: the “discipline of repentance (pénitence).”
New sense of the word in Tertullian. Diffraction of metanoia.
Repentance extended to the whole of life. Repentance as manifestation
of the truth of the sinner to God’s gaze. Dissociation of the pole
of faith and the pole of confession.
seven 20 FEBRUARY 1980 142
Tertullian (continued): break with the Neo-Platonist conception of
metanoia. ⵒ Development of the institution of the catechumenate
from the end of the second century. The procedures of truth at work
in the catechumen’s journey (non-public meeting, exorcism, profession
of faith, confession of sins). ⵒ Importance of these practices of the
catechumenate for the history of regimes of truth: a new accentuation
of the theology of baptism (preparation for baptism as enterprise
of mortification; the problem of sin: a permanent struggle against
the other who is in us; baptism as permanent model for life). ⵒ
Conclusion: reworking of subjectivity-truth relations around the
problem of conversion. Originality of Christianity in comparison with
other cultures.
eight 27 FEBRUARY 1980 167
(II) Practices of canonical and ecclesial penance, from the
second to the fifth century. ⵒ Hermas, The Pastor. Scholarly
interpretations to which it has given rise, from the end of the
ninteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century (Tauftheorie,
Jubiläumstheorie). Meaning of the repetition of repentance
(pénitence) after baptism ⵒ Early Christianity, a religion of
the perfect? Arguments against this conception: ritual forms, texts,
various practices. New status of metanoia on the basis of Hermas:
no longer simple state extending the baptismal break, but repetition
itself of redemption. ⵒ The problem of relapse. The system of law
(repeatability of sin) and the system of salvation (irreversibility
of knowledge) before Christianity. Effort of Greek wisdom to find
a way to accomodate these two systems (Pythagoreans and Stoic
examples). Why and how the problem arises for Christianity: the
question of the relapsed (relaps) and the debate with the gnosis. ⵒ
Concluding comment: Christianity did not introduce the meanin g
Conten t s ix
of sin into Greco-Roman culture, but was the first to think the
repercussions of the subject breaking with the truth.
nine 5 MARCH 1980 193
Canonical penance (continued): not a second baptism, but a second
penance. Characteristics of this second penance: it is unique; it is a
status and an all-encompassing status.ⵒ Truth acts entailed by
entry into this status: objective acts and subjective acts. (a) Analysis
of objective acts on the basis of the Letters of Saint Cyprian: an
individual, detailed, public examination. (b) Subjective acts: the
sinner’s obligation to manifest his own truth (exomologēsis).
Exomologesis: evolution of the word from the first to the third century.
The three moments of penitential procedure: expositio casus,
exomologesis strictly speaking ((publicatio sui), and the act of
reconciliation (impositio manus). Analysis of the second episode
(Tertullian; other examples). Two usages of the word “exomologesis”:
episode and all-encompassing act. ⵒ Three remarks: (1) the
expositio casus/publicatio sui relationship in the history of penance
from the twelfth century; (2) difference between exomologesis and
expositio casus; (3) exomologesis and the liar’s paradox.
ten 12 MARCH 1980 223
The coupling of the detailed verbalization of fault and exploration
of oneself. Its origin: neither the procedures of baptism nor those
of penance, but the monastic institution. ⵒ Techniques of testing
the soul and public manifestation (publication) of oneself before
Christianity. Verbalization of fault and exploration of oneself in
Greek and Roman Antiquity. Difference from Christianity. ⵒ
(III) The practice of spiritual direction (direction de conscience).
Its main characteristics: a free, voluntary, unlimited bond aiming
at access to a certain relationship of self to self. Comment on the
relation between the structure of political authority and the practice of
direction. Non-institutional and institutional practices (philosophical
schools) of direction in Greece and Rome. A fundamental technique:
examination of conscience. How it differs from Christian examination
of conscience. Two examples of ancient examination of conscience: the
Pythagorean Carmen aureum; Seneca’s De ira, III, 36.