Politics and Reason

On October 10 and 16, 1979, Foucault was invited to deliver at Stanford University the Tanner Lectures on Human Values. “ Omnes et Singulatim: Towards a Criticism of Political Reason” reproduces in its entirety those two lectures. Here Foucault investigates the rapport between rationalization and the excesses of power. He suggests a transformation in relationships such as those emanating from the notion of “individualizing power,” a phenomenon that he calls pastorship. In his analysis of this modality of power Foucault demonstrates how pastoral technology challenged the structure of ancient Greek society and ultimately coalesces with the State in the modern sense of the term. Foucault argues that early Christianity further implemented the concept of pastoral influences while functioning as a “game,” one dealing with individual control and enacted by the experience/knowledge/power triad. The reason of the state in early modern Europe is designated as an art of government which presupposes a particular kind of knowledge and is reflective of the very nature of the state itself. To enable the state to consolidate and exercise this power, the role of the police (Polizeiwissenschaft) as individualizing and totalizing agent must be augmented. Yet if political rationality is criticized here by Foucault no alternative is offered other than the radical questioning of its very roots. He thus forecloses the possibility of other institutions taking its place.