Deviations from an original choice: Foucault and politics of philosophy

Abstract

Would Philosophy be just one more discipline in curriculum or an original choice? This paper debates Foucault’s allegations in 70’s, especially in interviews, in which he defines philosophy, philosopher and the relations between them in society, i.e., what are politics of philosophy. For such, we draw on many author’s improvisations on the subject: the program of philosophy appears as fantastically dreamed by a “Chinese Borges”; an innovative graduation in it on Vincennes University would be a “trap”; there would be philosophers, but not philosophy; it would have lost its subversive power or its original choice character in some determined societies. Debating the ways of this bracing reflection, we suggest how Foucault runs from many traps out and emphasizes the importance of thinking politically what philosophy is. In the end, we hope to get forward with our reading less in the direction of a full definition of philosophy than defending its practice as an autonomous activity, sui generis, responsible for the social resistance of the art of reflecting.