Foucault's Foundationless Democratic Theory Page: 1
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Introduction
Michel Foucault does not maintain a steady philosophical argument throughout writings. Eric
Paras summarizes the status of Foucault's work quite well:
Nothing could be more unreasonable than the attempt to flatten down Foucault's thought
into a single, coherent project. What we see over the course of Foucault's career is not the
consistent advocacy of a pointed philosophical message...but rather a succession of near-
independent probings into questions that, for the moment, had captured the philosopher's
imagination (2006, 152).
As I delved into the body of Foucault's work, I found this statement to be very accurate and very useful
when trying to reconcile the numerous contradictions that I encountered when comparing Foucault's
earlier works with his later ones. Perhaps the most drastic difference in Foucualt's thought was his
attitude towards human rights and individual freedom. Formerly, a staunch anti-humanist who ascribed
all human thought and actions as predetermined by discourse, Foucault's later writings promoted the
ideal of a self-determining subject and the importance of human rights and freedom.
The turning point for Foucault concerning his attitude towards human rights was the Iranian
Revolution. His writings during this period and until the end of his career shifted away from his anti-
humanist stance towards a position that valued the importance of the subject in at least partially
determining his own thoughts and actions. Foucault used the term "political spirituality" to describe the
Iranian people's desire to rid their nation of the Shah's corrupt Western regime and establish a new
political system based on Islamic law. In this essay, I will define political spirituality and explain how
Foucault believes that this concept could constitute an alternative to modern, Enlightenment-based
political theory in the West. Political spirituality, a term that Foucault used only twice in his writings
and only once in his correspondence on the Iranian revolution, captures the direction of his later work
very well. I contend that political spirituality is similar to the "technologies of the self' (technd peri ton
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Carter, Kelly A. Foucault's Foundationless Democratic Theory, thesis, December 2006; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5475/m1/3/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .