Government of the self, government of others. Ethical and political questions in the late Foucault

IFILNOVA / EPLab, Lisbon, 6^th-7^th March 2017

International Conference

Organizers: Marta Faustino, Gianfranco Ferraro, Luís de Sousa

The Laboratory of Ethics and Political Philosophy of IFILNOVA invites submissions for its international conference “Government of Self, Government of Others. Ethical and Political Questions in the Late Foucault”, to be held at the New University of Lisbon, on the 6^th-7^th of March, 2017.

Michel Foucault’s last lecture series at Collège de France constitute a unity that testifies a shift in his thought. This shift deepens and expands the course of his preceding works concerning the genealogy of subjectivity, while, at the same time, adding to it a significant ethical and political dimension. Foucault returns to the practices of the self in antiquity and looks at the birth of the techniques of truth that allow us to understand how the Western subject has developed from the creation of particular relationships with its own body and other subjectivities. At the same time, these courses put in evidence the relationship between truth and power which lies at the core of Western forms of power and even Western democracy, thus inciting us to question our current political environment and face some political challenges of our time. Finally, Foucault’s concern in these last years with the technologies of ethical self-formation through what he calls “care of the self” sheds new light on his philosophical endeavor as a whole and situates his reflections at the center of contemporaneous moral debates.

On the occasion of the 35^th anniversary of The Hermeneutics of the Subject (1981-1982) and celebrating the conclusion of the publication of all the lecture courses from the 1980s – from On the Government of the Living (1979-1980) to The Courage of Truth (1984) -, this conference aims to (re)launch the critical debate on the last stage of Foucault’s thought, evaluating in what way and to which extent the perspectives that Foucault offers in this period might help us to unravel modernity and also give us tools to ethically and politically understand and transform our present.

We accept proposals on any of Foucault’s lecture courses from the 1980s or any interrelated aspect of the last period of his thought. The dialogue with other authors from the philosophical, sociological or political tradition is strongly encouraged. Possible topics include, but are not restricted to:

• Genealogy of subjectivity
• Hermeneutics and truth
• Care of the self and aesthetics of existence
• Governmentality
• Technologies of power and subjectivation
• Will to truth and parrhesia
• Knowledge and identity
• Ethics and practices of freedom
• Asceticism and philosophy
• Foucault’s actuality

We welcome submissions from doctoral students, early career researchers or established academics. Paper proposals of 300 to 500 words, accompanied by a short biography (150 words), should be submitted (in either English, French or Portuguese) to ciclo.foucault@gmail.com by the 30^th of November of 2016. Notifications of acceptance will be given by the 15^th of December of 2016.

For further information, please contact ciclo.foucault@gmail.com.