Tuomo Tiisala: "Foucault’s Account of the Will"

Tuomo Tiisala, Center for Post-Kantian Philosophy, University of Potsdam: "Foucault’s Account of the Will: Technological Transformations of Agency"

Abstract
Foucault notes in 1978 that the question of the will is at the heart of his work, and yet the alternative account of the will he developed has received little attention. This article offers a detailed interpretation and defense of Foucault’s original account of the will. The key idea, which distinguishes Foucault’s account from the naturalist and juridical approaches he rejects, is that the will is essentially embedded in a social matrix of technologies that (aim to) shape it. Language of ‘techniques’ and ‘technologies’ is pervasive in Foucault’s work on power and ethics alike. But what do technologies of power and technologies of the self have in common? What is the underlying notion of technique? I argue that Foucault’s use of technological vocabulary betrays a set of rarely discussed but substantial commitments that link his philosophical outlook to some of the key ideas in the epistemological work of Canguilhem and Bachelard. First, they share a view of science, according to which theory is parasitic on technology. Consequently, they agree that science not only explains and predicts but it is essentially a technological activity that transforms the reality under study by creating new phenomena. Against this background, Foucault’s studies of the human sciences should be appreciated as a critical engagement with technologies of agency. In the account of the will that results, the capacity to choose what to do is the target of technological transformation both through strategies of governing the conduct of others and in self-governing.