SP23 PHIL420/520

This course will examine some of Foucault’s most important concepts: genealogy, power/knowledge, the disciplines, governmentality and biopower. Our concern will be to understand and assess those concepts in their own right as well as in their relationship to other thinkers—most importantly Nietzsche and Marx. I hope to make time to discuss Foucault’s concrete political engagements such as his involvement with Groupe d’Information sur les Prisons (Prison Information Group), support for the Iranian Revolution and alleged sympathy for neoliberalism.

We will read widely in Foucault’s diverse corpus, with an emphasis on Discipline and Punish, The Birth of Biopolitics, and Security, Territory, Population. Naturally, there will be plenty of selections from his interviews as well.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact the professor: max.rosenkrantz@csulb.edu