Canguilhem, Foucault and the political ontology of vitalism

Abstract

In this paper we defend the thesis that the notion of life, in Foucault’s work, is not only the historical correlate of power and knowledge practices. Foucault argues a Vitalist ontological position, however intermittent and not at all explicit. The source of this philosophical choice in Foucault is not Nietzsche or Deleuze, but it coincides in many respects with the non-essentialist Vitalism of Georges Canguilhem. First, we compare Canguilhem and Foucault’s relation to the Kantian tradition, in its critical and transcendental aspects. Secondly, we confront the notion of life on the philosophical proposals of Canguilhem and Foucault. Finally we analyze the canguilhemian origin of the normalization foucauldian concept. This affiliation also regards the concept of biopolitics, referred to a power that acts on life, imitating its operation. This rooting of the thought of Foucault in the Vitalism of his master resolves two internal tensions in the path of the first: the justification of movements of revolt and self-formative character of subjectivity.