The Body Problematic by Laura Hengehold
Late in life, Foucault identified with the critical tradition of Kant, encouraging us to read both thinkers in new ways. Kant's Copernican strategy of grounding knowledge in the limits of human reason proved to stabilize political, social-scientific, and medical expertise as well as philosophical discourse. These inevitable limits were made concrete in historical structures such as the asylum, the prison, and the sexual or racial human body. Such institutions built upon and shaped the aesthetic judgment of those considered normal. Following Kant through all of Foucault's major works, this book shows how bodies functioned as problematic objects in which the limits of post-Enlightenment European power and discourse were imaginatively figured and unified. It suggests ways that readers in a neoliberal political order can detach from the imaginative schemes vested in their bodies and experiment normatively with their own security needs.“This thought-provoking work on Foucault reads him against a Kantian background—replacing transcendental critique with genealogical critiqueLocating Kant’s critical standpoint in a resistance to being dominated by such problematic limits as a thing in itself and an infinite subject, Hengehold goes on to explore how Foucault treats madness, sexuality, and delinquency as individual embodied modes of resistance to the limit concepts of the body politic. This book will be of interest to readers in contemporary philosophy, aesthetics, feminism, critical theory, and the social sciences.”
—Rudolf A. Makkreel, Emory University
“By examining Foucault’s writings on Kant and the concept of aesthetic judgment in the work of both philosophers, Hengehold reveals compelling connections between these pivotal thinkers. Reading Foucault through Kant, she offers a serious challenge to critics who would dismiss Foucault’s last works as a mere reduction of ethics to aesthetics. Hengehold’s elegant prose and meticulous scholarship add interest and depth to a very original analysis. Every Foucault scholar needs to read this book.”
—Ladelle McWhorter, University of Richmond
“In The Body Problematic, Laura Hengehold develops an ingenious and comprehensive account of the relation between body and State in Kant and Foucault. . . . By laying out the issue, the author has set the bar very high, and thereby done those working in the field a huge favor. We now have a new benchmark that both inspires us and vindicates our work.”
—Alexander I. Stingl Foucault Studies
Laura Hengehold is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Case Western Reserve University.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780271032122 |
| ISBN 10 | 027103212X |
| Title | The Body Problematic |
| Author | Laura Hengehold |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Pennsylvania State University Press |
| Year published | 2010-09-15 |
| Number of pages | 336 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |