ATS2865 Language, truth and power

This unit considers the way authority bearing practices are communicated and experienced. It also looks at the historical and conceptual difficulties involved in identifying and contesting false authority.

The unit will focus primarily on Michel Foucault's writing on these topics. We will start with his treatment of language in The Archaeology of Knowledge, and move on to consider his conception of the relations between truth and power in Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexuality. We will also look at the critical reception and adaptation of Foucault's approach to these issues among contemporaneous commentators (e.g., Noam Chomsky) and more recent scholars (e.g., Beatrice Han-Pile). The unit may also consider the influence Foucault has had on feminist work on the history of philosophy (e.g., Michele Le Doeuff).