Speaker: Barry Stocker<\/p>\n
Location\/time: Thursday, November 28, 2024. 15.30-17.00. H-232.<\/p>\n
Title: \u201cFoucault on Freedom: Subjectivity Against the Subject\u201d<\/p>\n
Abstract: Foucault may often be perceived as denying agency to any subject through theories of discourse and power, in which the subject is merely the object of, or even just the effect of discourse or power. Though many texts by Foucault focus on discourse or power, or their combination in power-knowledge, in some later texts Foucault distances himself from such presupposition and allows for questions of freedom.<\/p>\n
These are texts which refer to ethics as action on the self and possibilities of aesthetic choice with regard to observing objects, or our style of living. Earlier texts on discourse and power should be read in this light. Later texts expand both on the \u2018subject\u2019 and \u2018subjectivity\u2019, referring to the subject as a deep essence of the self-constituted by philosophical practices and Christian institutions, while subjectivity includes the ability to act on ourselves and develop an art of living. It is through these broadly ethical concerns that Foucault develops a view of freedom. Much of this comes in discussions of antiquity, but it also appears in thought of an aesthetic reaction to Enlightenment. The paper explores these themes and the tensions around the subject and subjectivity.<\/p>\n
Speaker bio: Barry Stocker is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Bo\u011fazi\u00e7i University. He works on topics in ethics and political philosophy, the history of philosophy, and the philosophy of literature.<\/p>\n
He is the author of \u201cDerrida on Deconstruction\u201d (Routledge 2006), \u201cKierkegaard on Politics\u201d (Palgrave Macmillan 2014), and \u201cPhilosophy of the Novel\u201d (Palgrave Macmillan 2018).<\/p>\n