Foucault: Lecture 11, 21 January 1986

<p><em>The Deleuze Seminars</em> is a collection of audio recordings, transcriptions, and English translations of, and supplemental materials from, the lectures French philosopher Gilles Deleuze gave during  his career at the University of Paris 8.</p>

<p>"Foucault" was a 26-lecture seminar given from October 1985 to June 1986.  In these lectures, Deleuze offers his interpretation and analysis of French philosopher Michel Foucault's work. Examining the theoretical foundations and major themes of Foucault's philosophy, Deleuze dedicates several lectures to each of what he calls the "three axes" of Foucault's thought. This seminar coincides with the publication of Deleuze's book <em>Foucault</em> (1986).</p>

<p>In the 21 January 1986 lecture, after a brief consideration of Foucault’s relationship with cinema in terms of his problem of the visible and the statable (cf. René Allio’s film on Pierre Rivière), Deleuze returns to power as presented in a diagram exposing a relation of forces, distinguishing characteristics of power in contrast to knowledge, and how power reveals active as well as reactive affects. Addressing the plurality of forces, Deleuze returns to the example of the rise of pastoral power, then to the diagram of power with two different definitions<em>, </em>and to diagrams in different societies, hence indicating mutations from one diagram to another. Deleuze raises the question of origins of a diagram with different responses (the Outside, the dice throw as emission of singularities), and such relinkages of diagrams correspond to “Markov chains”, but also to Nietzsche’s <em>Zarathustra </em>and “the iron hand of necessity” shaking the cup of chance. As regards the diagram, Deleuze describes it as informal, non-stratified, perpetually mutating, abstract without being general, and in fact, virtual yet real, then provides details of how mathematical concepts correspond the knowledge-power distinctions. Moreover, since institutions are forms that integrate micro-relations of power, Foucault resuscitates the word “government” to designate relations of forces most generally, discussing how institutions as molar agencies actualize and integrate molecular relations of forces (cf.  <em>Discipline and Punish,</em> <em>The History of Sexuality</em>). As an example of molecular sexuality, Deleuze considers how Proust describes sexuality in <em>Sodom and Gomorrah</em> through numerous variables of the body and pleasures.</p>

<p>This dataset for the new version includes four files, the translation and transcription of the session in Open Data Text (odt) format, an aggregate version of the audio recordings in a single mp3, and the original Paris-8 French transcription of the recorded lecture. The aggregate audio file has been downsampled.</p>

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<p><em>Les Séminaires de Deleuze</em> sont une collection d'enregistrements audio, de transcriptions et de traductions en anglais et de documents complémentaires des conférences que le philosophe français Gilles Deleuze a donné lors de sa carrière à l'Université de Paris 8.</p>

<p>«Foucault» était un séminaire de 26 conférences donné d'octobre 1985 à juin 1986. Dans ces conférences, Deleuze offre son interprétation et son analyse de l’œuvre du philosophe français Michel Foucault. En examinant les fondements théoriques et les thèmes majeurs de la philosophie de Foucault, Deleuze consacre plusieurs conférences à chacun de ce qu'il appelle les «trois axes» de la pensée de Foucault. Ce séminaire coïncide avec la publication du livre de Deleuze <em>Foucault</em> (1986).</p>

<p>Dans la conférence du 21 janvier 1986, les sujets de discussion comprennent: Foucault et le cinéma contemporain; la disjonction entre le champ sonore et le champ visuel; le rapport entre le visible et l'énonҫable; le pouvoir pastoral; diagrammes et catégories de savoirs et de pouvoirs; les multiplicités, les forces affectées, les points de réceptivité et la distribution des affects; <em>Généalogie de la morale</em> de Nietzsche; pouvoirs, d'un point à un autre, et savoirs (formes); affects et singularités; diagrammes et sociétés; les anciens Grecs; la rivalité des hommes libres des cités; Platon; diagrammes, tirages successifs et coups des dés; les réenchaînements et chaînes de Markov; Nietzsche et Mallarmé; enoncés, singularités et mathématiques; courbes intégrales et voisinages; la notion d'actualisation (intégration et différenciation) du pouvoir dans le savoir; les institutions et les intégrations des rapports de pouvoir; les instances molaires; <em>Histoire de la sexualité </em>de Foucault; et l'écrivain français Marcel Proust et la sexualité.</p>