Power, Freedom, and Individuality: Foucault and Sexual Difference

Author: Rozmarin, Miri

Source: Human Studies, Volume 28, Number 1, March 2005 , pp. 1-14(14)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

This paper offers a detailed account of Foucault’s ethical and political notion of individuality as presented in his late work, and discusses its relationship to the feminist project of the theory of sexual difference. I argue that Foucault’s elaboration of the classical ethos of “care for the self” opens the way for regarding the “I-woman” as an ethical, political and aesthetic self-creation. However, it has significant limitations that cannot be ignored. I elaborate on two aspects of Foucault’s avoidance of sexual difference as a relevant category for an account of political and ethical individuality, which thus implicitly associates individual agency with men. I argue that Foucault implicitly assumes the existence of an ontological desire to become engaged in political self-creation. However, the ethical position of self-knowledge and desire should be understood as a contingent option that depends on material and historical conditions for its realization. Hence, I argue that a feminist reworking of Foucault’s notion of political individuality should add a substantial ethical condition to the imperative of self-knowledge and self-creation – making possible the desiring woman subject.

Keywords: foucault; freedom; individuality; power; sexual difference; subjectivity

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10746-005-3594-7

Affiliations: 1: Philosophy Department, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, Israel, Email: rozmarim@post.tau.ac.il

Publication date: 2005-03-01