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Truth and the ‘Politics of Ourselves’
Author(s) -
Anderson Russell,
Wong James
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the southern journal of philosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.281
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 2041-6962
pISSN - 0038-4283
DOI - 10.1111/sjp.12041
Subject(s) - epistemology , normative , politics , sociology , openness to experience , interpersonal communication , meaning (existential) , action (physics) , context (archaeology) , self , social psychology , psychology , social science , political science , philosophy , law , paleontology , physics , quantum mechanics , biology
The authors take up Amy Allen's suggestion that while Foucault's work may be able to support a certain type of self‐critique and self‐development, it does not permit the kind of interpersonal relations that are necessary for the development of intersubjective meaning in struggles against imposed identities. The authors contend that for Foucault, relations of ‘truth’ play an important constitutive role in subjectivities, and that understanding the ‘politics of ourselves’ in the context of this truth shows not only an openness to meaningful interpersonal relations, but also that these relations are capable of generating the conceptual and normative resources necessary for resisting socially imposed subjectivities. The authors present such an account of intersubjective relations based on Foucault's discussion of parrhesia , and develop a model of collaborative political action that addresses the criticisms raised.