DOI: 10.4231/gp0b-3a26
title: Foucault: Lecture 2, 29 October 1985

description: &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Deleuze Seminars&lt;/em&gt; 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.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&quot;Foucault&quot; 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&#39;s work. Examining the theoretical foundations and major themes of Foucault&#39;s philosophy, Deleuze dedicates several lectures to each of what he calls the &quot;three axes&quot; of Foucault&#39;s thought. This seminar coincides with the publication of Deleuze&#39;s book &lt;em&gt;Foucault&lt;/em&gt; (1986).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In the 29 October 1985 lecture, reviewing previous key points, Deleuze argues that the first axis consists of the historical a &lt;em&gt;priori&lt;/em&gt; and strata as composed of stable forms of the visible and the statable, offering the example of Herman Melville&rsquo;s novel, &lt;em&gt;Pierre; or, The Ambiguities&lt;/em&gt;, to consider the shift from strata to unstratified elements of visibilities. The opening recap is summarized with the questions: what do you say, what do you see, and what do you make seen? Then, with a second aspect corresponding to the question, what is knowledge? , Deleuze shifts from strata to interstrata, in Foucault from phenomenology toward epistemology, examining knowledge as a discursive and non-discursive practice, truth as the relationship between discursive and non-discursive practices, and the rules for different types of statements. Deleuze examines how the objects of statements take on myriad aspects depending on the regime (e.g. the hospital or prison regime). As the political aspects of speaking and the visible matter to Deleuze, he comments on recent and contemporary examples of this axis, notably the &ldquo;twisted vitalism&rdquo; of the Holocaust, medicine without doctors or patients (&lt;em&gt;malades&lt;/em&gt;). Reading from &lsquo;The History of Sexuality&rsquo; I, Deleuze examines the intersection of contemporary threats of death (death sentence, nuclear war) with management of life, examples showing how Foucault&rsquo;s method brings forth the supposedly hidden statements existing in plain sight.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;-&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Les S&eacute;minaires de Deleuze&lt;/em&gt; sont une collection d&#39;enregistrements audio, de transcriptions et de traductions en anglais et de documents compl&eacute;mentaires des conf&eacute;rences que le philosophe fran&ccedil;ais Gilles Deleuze a donn&eacute; lors de sa carri&egrave;re &agrave; l&#39;Universit&eacute; de Paris 8.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&laquo;Foucault&raquo; &eacute;tait un s&eacute;minaire de 26 conf&eacute;rences donn&eacute; d&#39;octobre 1985 &agrave; juin 1986. Dans ces conf&eacute;rences, Deleuze offre son interpr&eacute;tation et son analyse de l&rsquo;&oelig;uvre du philosophe fran&ccedil;ais Michel Foucault. En examinant les fondements th&eacute;oriques et les th&egrave;mes majeurs de la philosophie de Foucault, Deleuze consacre plusieurs conf&eacute;rences &agrave; chacun de ce qu&#39;il appelle les &laquo;trois axes&raquo; de la pens&eacute;e de Foucault. Ce s&eacute;minaire co&iuml;ncide avec la publication du livre de Deleuze &lt;em&gt;Foucault&lt;/em&gt; (1986).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Dans la conf&eacute;rence du 29 octobre 1985, les sujets de discussion comprennent: une &eacute;poque se d&eacute;finit par ce qu&#39;elle voit et ce qu&#39;elle dit; l&#39;arch&eacute;ologie comme une discipline qui analyse les archives; une archive comme le recueil audiovisuel d&#39;une &eacute;poque; les formations historiques et la d&eacute;raison; l&rsquo;&eacute;nonc&eacute; de la folie, la vertu, la prison, le voir et le crime, et l&rsquo;&eacute;nonc&eacute; de d&eacute;linquance; les &lt;em&gt;a priori&lt;/em&gt; historiques et les strates comme compos&eacute;s de formes stables du visible et d&rsquo;&eacute;non&ccedil;ables; l&#39;&eacute;crivain am&eacute;ricain Herman Melville et son roman &lt;em&gt;Pierre ou les Ambigu&iuml;t&eacute;s&lt;/em&gt;; comment la ph&eacute;nom&eacute;nologie est remplac&eacute;e par l&#39;&eacute;pist&eacute;mologie et le savoir; le savoir est les seuils d&rsquo;&eacute;nonc&eacute;s, pas forc&eacute;ment scientifique et pas n&eacute;cessairement r&eacute;duit &agrave; la connaissance; le savoir comme une pratique discursive et non discursive; le vrai comme le rapport entre des pratiques discursives et non discursives; les r&egrave;gles des diff&eacute;rents types d&rsquo;&eacute;nonc&eacute;s; le m&eacute;decin fran&ccedil;ais Philippe Pinel, son travail pour &laquo;lib&eacute;rez les fous&raquo;, et le regard et le jugement perp&eacute;tuel; la folie innocente du fou et la responsabilit&eacute; du trouble de l&#39;ordre moral et social; la n&eacute;cessit&eacute; de la peur du fou; la soudainet&eacute; de la punition; la d&eacute;linquance comme un objet d&rsquo;&eacute;nonc&eacute;; l&#39;adoucissement des peines, l&#39;exil, le supplice et le travail forc&eacute;; les &eacute;nonc&eacute;s disciplinaires et la gestion et le contr&ocirc;le de la vie rempla&ccedil;ant le pouvoir souverain et la mortification; la peine de mort; l&#39;Holocauste; la gestion de la vie et de la survie; souverainet&eacute; et populations; m&eacute;decine sans m&eacute;decins ni maladies, par images et sans signes; et l&#39;archive comme le corpus d&rsquo;&eacute;nonc&eacute;s ni cach&eacute;s ni donn&eacute;s.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 29 October 1985. This is lecture 2 of a 26-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between October 1985 and June 1986.