DOI: 10.4231/sc99-jq76
title: Foucault: Lecture 7, 10 December 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 10 December 1985 lecture, first reminding participants that discussion still focuses on the two irreducible forms (the form of the visible and the form of the statable), Deleuze presents Foucault&rsquo;s admiration for Raymond Roussel&rsquo;s work which, for Foucault, reveals a veritable battle between the visible and the statable. Deleuze indicates how, for the statable and the visible, there exists the condition (the &ldquo;there is&rdquo; of language, and light of the visible) and the conditioned (&lt;em&gt;le conditionn&eacute;&lt;/em&gt;) (the statement itself, and scintillation), and Foucault emphasizes the gap between the &ldquo;there is&rdquo; of language and the statements disseminated in language, into which the visible can seep. After the Foucault-Roussel examination, Deleuze reaches some conclusions: the first axis of Foucault&rsquo;s thought is &ldquo;knowledge&rdquo; (&lt;i&gt;savoir&lt;/i&gt;), with two parts for which Deleuze examines two kinds of dualism, from Descartes to Kant, through Spinoza and Bergson. A third kind interests Foucault, the one inscribed in speech, a preparatory stage of multiplicity and pure pluralism. Deleuze indicates some bases of multiplicity in mathematics, then emphasizing that the parts of knowledge are interwoven in the strata of historical formations. Hence, Deleuze suggests that the reconciliation of mutual captures of the forms can occur only in the dimension constituted by relations of power, requiring that he explain why power is the second axis. He concludes that even if power is silent and blind, it nonetheless constructs seeing and speaking, and Deleuze explores how we are made to speak through power, that is, &ldquo;spotlighting&rdquo; as an operation of power. Given Foucault&rsquo;s interest in &ldquo;lives of infamous men&rdquo;, Deleuze provides three definitions of &ldquo;infamy&rdquo;: classical (e.g., Gilles de Rais), baroque (cf. Borges), and modern (e.g. power &ldquo;spotlighting&rdquo; the individual). With the &ldquo;spotlight&rdquo; on the &ldquo;ordinary man&rdquo; (cf. Foucault&rsquo;s example in &lt;i&gt;lettres de cachet&lt;/i&gt;), Deleuze concludes by outlining the three requirements between power and knowledge, particularly the primacy of power over knowledge. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&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 10 d&eacute;cembre 1985, les sujets de discussion comprennent: le visible et l&#39;&eacute;nonҫable, et la capture et la violence entre les deux formes; une critique de l&#39;intentionnalit&eacute; et de la ph&eacute;nom&eacute;nologie; le &lt;em&gt;Ceci n&rsquo;est pas une pipe&lt;/em&gt; de Magritte; Roussel, la condition et le conditionn&eacute; du visible et de l&#39;&eacute;nonҫable, le r&eacute;gime de la diss&eacute;mination des &eacute;nonc&eacute;s et des visibilit&eacute;s, et le seul rapport de l&#39;ext&eacute;riorit&eacute; (contrairement &agrave; Kant); le quadrillage &agrave; l&#39;air libre, l&#39;exil et l&rsquo;enfermement; le th&eacute;oricien culturel et philosophe fran&ccedil;ais Paul Virilio; que la condition pose le conditionn&eacute; comme dispers&eacute;; les captures mutuelles de l&#39;&eacute;nonc&eacute; (spontan&eacute;it&eacute; ou d&eacute;termination) et de la visibilit&eacute; (la r&eacute;ceptivit&eacute;); que Foucault est kantien; Roussel et la d&eacute;termination et la fuite de la visibilit&eacute;; l&#39;artiste suisse-allemand Paul Klee; que selon Foucault, il n&#39;existe pas de savoir sauvage; le dualisme du savoir et le dualisme en g&eacute;n&eacute;ral, le Vrai (Descartes), le subjectif (Kant) et les philosophies de l&#39;Un ou monisme (avec la consid&eacute;ration du philosophe n&eacute;erlandais Baruch Spinoza et du philosophe fran&ccedil;ais Henri Bergson); Foucault et la dispersion des mots; le tissage de Platon et son dialogue &lt;em&gt;Le politique&lt;/em&gt;; le savoir comme un entrelacement du visible et de l&#39;&eacute;nonc&eacute;, et les formations historiques; les rapports du pouvoir; que ce pouvoir n&#39;est pas une forme, mais plut&ocirc;t un &eacute;l&eacute;ment informel qui rend compte des relations de savoir; l&#39;&eacute;crivain argentin Jorge Luis Borges et l&#39;infamie; le crime, l&#39;inceste et le film du r&eacute;alisateur de cin&eacute;ma et de th&eacute;&acirc;tre fran&ccedil;ais Ren&eacute; Allio, &lt;em&gt;Moi, Pierre Rivi&egrave;re...&lt;/em&gt;; l&#39;essai de Foucault &lt;em&gt;La vie des hommes inf&acirc;mes&lt;/em&gt;; les lettres de cachet; le placement volontaire; et &lt;em&gt;L&#39;arch&eacute;ologie du savoir&lt;/em&gt; de Foucault et l&#39;&eacute;nonc&eacute;.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 10 December 1985. This is lecture 7 of a 26-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between October 1985 and June 1986.