English subtitles for clip: File:Ikusgela - Michel Foucault.webm
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1 00:00:03,890 --> 00:00:07,395 Madness, illness, death, perversion, 2 00:00:07,419 --> 00:00:11,115 prison, sexuality, abnormality. 3 00:00:11,140 --> 00:00:15,245 Who said that philosophy cannot address these issues? 4 00:00:15,270 --> 00:00:19,194 Well, until Foucault appeared, most had not been addressed. 5 00:00:19,219 --> 00:00:22,905 Not, at least, with the depth that he did. 6 00:00:22,930 --> 00:00:26,263 Therefore, because he walked off the beaten paths, 7 00:00:26,287 --> 00:00:29,371 we should highlight the contribution of this twentieth-century philosopher. 8 00:00:29,460 --> 00:00:31,874 But who was Michel Foucault? 9 00:00:31,899 --> 00:00:37,434 He was born on October 15, 1926 in Poitiers, France. 10 00:00:38,062 --> 00:00:41,787 He was a good student, but he frustrated his family when 11 00:00:41,811 --> 00:00:45,430 he informed them that he would not study medicine like his father. 12 00:00:46,270 --> 00:00:50,597 He had an unstable childhood, among other things because 13 00:00:50,621 --> 00:00:55,200 in 1940 the French territory remained in the hands of the German Nazis. 14 00:00:56,124 --> 00:01:01,074 Foucault left Poitiers in 1946, at the age of 19, 15 00:01:01,098 --> 00:01:06,180 when he was accepted into the famous École Normal Supérieure, near Paris. 16 00:01:06,724 --> 00:01:08,933 Those were dark times. 17 00:01:08,957 --> 00:01:13,094 He was homosexual, which brought him painful internal conflicts, 18 00:01:13,118 --> 00:01:17,080 since post-war France was puritanical and moralistic. 19 00:01:17,730 --> 00:01:24,100 He attempted suicide and was later treated by psychologists and psychiatrists. 20 00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:28,397 This aroused curiosity in him, both about psychology 21 00:01:28,422 --> 00:01:31,500 as for all kinds of drugs. 22 00:01:31,755 --> 00:01:37,535 With the end of the World War, the American way of life caused fascination in France, 23 00:01:37,559 --> 00:01:42,384 while the Communist Party attracted the majority of thinkers. 24 00:01:42,408 --> 00:01:47,610 In 1950 he became a member of the Communist Party. 25 00:01:47,820 --> 00:01:51,171 He did not serve even two years as a militant, since he left 26 00:01:51,195 --> 00:01:54,570 as soon as he learned of the abuse of authority in Moscow. 27 00:01:55,260 --> 00:01:57,995 From there he continually tried to invent 28 00:01:58,019 --> 00:02:00,060 a new anti-authoritarian left. 29 00:02:01,010 --> 00:02:05,840 In May 1968, the students revolutionized France. 30 00:02:06,353 --> 00:02:10,251 Foucault's reflection would focus on power 31 00:02:10,276 --> 00:02:14,970 and he was very effective in organizing protests and revolts. 32 00:02:15,070 --> 00:02:19,255 In 1973 he created the left-wing newspaper Libération, 33 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:23,620 together with Sartre and other friends. 34 00:02:23,670 --> 00:02:27,693 He was a professor at different universities in several countries: 35 00:02:27,718 --> 00:02:31,340 In Sweden, in Tunisia... And he never stopped writing. 36 00:02:31,531 --> 00:02:35,777 He died in Paris in June 1984. 37 00:02:35,801 --> 00:02:38,770 Due to an AIDS-related illness. 38 00:02:39,500 --> 00:02:43,475 In France, in the 1950s and 1960s, 39 00:02:43,499 --> 00:02:47,498 Marxism and existentialism dominated Philosophy. 40 00:02:47,630 --> 00:02:51,970 Humanism based on the free subject, led by the thinker Jean-Paul Sartre. 41 00:02:52,264 --> 00:02:56,430 According to them, humans freely create History, 42 00:02:56,455 --> 00:03:00,846 free from the economy or genes-determined present. 43 00:03:00,870 --> 00:03:05,962 The so-called “structuralists” rose up against this point of view: 44 00:03:05,986 --> 00:03:10,480 Lévi-Strauss, Althusser, Lacan, Barthes and Foucault, among others. 45 00:03:10,810 --> 00:03:13,690 Although Foucault rejected that label. 46 00:03:14,230 --> 00:03:17,647 They considered that people are trapped, imprisoned and blind, 47 00:03:17,671 --> 00:03:20,943 in the networks of uncontrollable unconscious structures. 48 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:24,266 Starting from this basis, the philosophical trajectory 49 00:03:24,290 --> 00:03:27,380 and Foucault's academic work is divided into three stages. 50 00:03:28,190 --> 00:03:30,834 1-Archaeology of knowledge. 51 00:03:30,859 --> 00:03:34,120 In this first era, Foucault attempted to investigate knowledge. 52 00:03:34,145 --> 00:03:38,616 This knowledge is for Foucalt an unconscious thought that underlies 53 00:03:38,641 --> 00:03:43,167 what is done and said in a culture and at a given time. 54 00:03:43,192 --> 00:03:46,264 It is also known as the archaeological era. 55 00:03:46,289 --> 00:03:49,061 In fact, as in archaeology, it is necessary 56 00:03:49,085 --> 00:03:52,280 to reach the lower layers to know about this knowledge. 57 00:03:52,760 --> 00:03:55,880 Foucault also calls knowledge "episteme". 58 00:03:56,100 --> 00:03:59,601 According to him, everything that is said and done is derived 59 00:03:59,626 --> 00:04:02,821 of that unconscious knowledge system. 60 00:04:02,940 --> 00:04:06,143 In other words: we all think with 61 00:04:06,167 --> 00:04:09,980 the unconscious thought of a time and a language. 62 00:04:10,100 --> 00:04:14,395 Therefore, to be free it is necessary, first of all, to be aware 63 00:04:14,419 --> 00:04:18,809 of that unconscious knowledge that leads us to think what we think. 64 00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:22,459 2-Genealogy of power. 65 00:04:22,484 --> 00:04:26,870 In this second stage, Foucault studies the penal mechanisms of power. 66 00:04:27,230 --> 00:04:28,810 Among them, penitentiary centers. 67 00:04:29,410 --> 00:04:34,355 According to him, our era is based on closure, sequestration and discipline. 68 00:04:35,300 --> 00:04:37,991 Power has people in places 69 00:04:38,015 --> 00:04:40,106 closed, sequestered on strict schedules: 70 00:04:40,130 --> 00:04:42,328 in the hospital, in the asylum, in 71 00:04:42,352 --> 00:04:44,670 school, in prison or in the factory. 72 00:04:45,160 --> 00:04:47,291 Our society is a penitentiary archipelago 73 00:04:47,316 --> 00:04:49,330 formed by all of them. 74 00:04:49,780 --> 00:04:51,910 Foucalt tries to break all the locks 75 00:04:51,934 --> 00:04:53,950 and free the bodies. 76 00:04:54,220 --> 00:04:58,700 For Pythagoras and Plato, the body was the prison of the soul. 77 00:04:58,940 --> 00:05:01,525 Foucault argues that it is the other way around: 78 00:05:01,549 --> 00:05:04,423 according to him, the penitentiary archipelago projected by the reason 79 00:05:04,447 --> 00:05:09,310 projected by the reason is the one that punishes and disciplines bodies. 80 00:05:09,670 --> 00:05:12,202 Therefore, power controls souls and 81 00:05:12,226 --> 00:05:15,130 gets the body also under control. 82 00:05:15,790 --> 00:05:18,155 In the midst of this genealogical stage, 83 00:05:18,180 --> 00:05:21,861 Foucault begins to show a new conception of power: 84 00:05:21,885 --> 00:05:25,692 the essence of power is not prohibition, oppression 85 00:05:25,716 --> 00:05:28,350 and punishment; the ultimate goal is to create normality. 86 00:05:28,730 --> 00:05:31,391 That is, the entry of a person who is considered 87 00:05:31,415 --> 00:05:34,100 crazy in a madhouse is an unusual custom. 88 00:05:34,550 --> 00:05:38,412 For this strange behavior to be considered natural or reasonable, 89 00:05:38,436 --> 00:05:41,980 the power has had to ensure that this is considered normal. 90 00:05:43,280 --> 00:05:47,480 Foucault invents the concept of “biopolitics” in the genealogical era. 91 00:05:48,180 --> 00:05:50,574 Between the end of the 18th century and the beginning 92 00:05:50,598 --> 00:05:52,456 of the 19th century, power was distorted: 93 00:05:52,481 --> 00:05:55,134 until then it ruled over individuals 94 00:05:55,158 --> 00:05:58,704 through discipline, and from 95 00:05:58,728 --> 00:06:03,168 that moment it rules all humanity, 96 00:06:03,192 --> 00:06:05,926 entering the population category. 97 00:06:06,570 --> 00:06:10,311 The power will be in charge of managing health, hygiene, 98 00:06:10,335 --> 00:06:14,100 food, sexuality, birth and migration. 99 00:06:14,990 --> 00:06:19,320 It will govern life through multiple technologies, strategies and tools. 100 00:06:19,620 --> 00:06:21,940 This is what Foucault calls Biopolitics. 101 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:25,034 3-Technologies of the self. 102 00:06:25,059 --> 00:06:27,223 This third era has also been called 103 00:06:27,247 --> 00:06:29,480 the “Age of subjectivation techniques”. 104 00:06:29,950 --> 00:06:31,981 In the second part of 105 00:06:32,005 --> 00:06:33,237 the 1970s, 106 00:06:33,261 --> 00:06:37,160 Foucault's journey took an unexpected direction. 107 00:06:37,490 --> 00:06:39,886 He stepped away from political investigations 108 00:06:39,910 --> 00:06:42,790 dominant until then and approached ethics. 109 00:06:43,170 --> 00:06:46,716 For Foucault, self-care techniques constitute 110 00:06:46,740 --> 00:06:49,920 one of the most important aspects of ethics. 111 00:06:50,460 --> 00:06:53,335 Through these techniques we can produce changes in 112 00:06:53,359 --> 00:06:56,480 our thoughts, behaviors and ways of being. 113 00:06:57,160 --> 00:07:00,562 The inventors and devote users of these 114 00:07:00,586 --> 00:07:02,550 techniques promise us that thanks to that 115 00:07:02,574 --> 00:07:05,867 responsibility on ourselves we can change 116 00:07:05,891 --> 00:07:08,180 and thus achieve some happiness. 117 00:07:09,113 --> 00:07:11,961 Among these technologies of the self are those that have been promoted 118 00:07:11,985 --> 00:07:15,181 in different philosophical currents: analyzing consciousness before 119 00:07:15,206 --> 00:07:20,344 falling asleep, spiritual retreat, meditating every day, 120 00:07:20,368 --> 00:07:27,193 reflect on death, write everyday things, memorize texts from wise men... 121 00:07:27,810 --> 00:07:32,410 Foucault makes these currents his own and uses them to fight against power. 122 00:07:33,410 --> 00:07:38,211 Biopowers drive lifestyles and ways of being for 123 00:07:38,235 --> 00:07:43,140 creating controllable “normal” individuals and automatic children. 124 00:07:43,939 --> 00:07:46,791 Foucault himself will try to promote new life styles 125 00:07:46,815 --> 00:07:49,690 and new, different, strange characters. 126 00:07:51,440 --> 00:07:55,050 According to him, with the technology of the self, each one can 127 00:07:55,074 --> 00:07:57,161 create themself as a beautiful 128 00:07:57,185 --> 00:08:00,473 work of art, even if it is not suitable 129 00:08:00,497 --> 00:08:02,660 and nice for the normality that we have. 130 00:08:03,570 --> 00:08:07,074 Foucault's philosophy focuses on the search 131 00:08:07,098 --> 00:08:09,632 and production of new freedoms, an attempt to 132 00:08:09,656 --> 00:08:12,932 overcome the limitations that our time imposes on us, 133 00:08:12,957 --> 00:08:15,620 both in thought and in life. 134 00:08:15,970 --> 00:08:17,414 A good support point 135 00:08:17,438 --> 00:08:21,561 to look at ourselves at any time.