[lbo-talk] Power (Waiting for Foucault)

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Tue Jul 1 15:54:16 PDT 2008


Charles Brown wrote:
>
> Umm--that's exactly Foucault's point. Power is an emergent property of
>
> social interactions.
>
> Miles
>
> ^^^
> CB: Some - like Sahlins in _Waiting for Foucault_ - seem to think he
> reduces social relations to a power/violence instinct; like every
> individual has an instinctive will-to-power.
>
That's a pretty strange reading of Foucault. For Foucault, appeals to instinct are discourse to be analyzed, not the cause of social relations. He's a careful enough historian not to make that gross category error.

Miles



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