FOUCAULT’S ETHICS IN EDUCATION by Bruce Moghtader B.A., Simon Fraser University, 2011 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Human Development, Learning and Culture) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) May 2015 © Bruce Moghtader, 2015 Abstract Ethical questions are often posed to explore the relationship between and the responsibilities of actors to each other by adopting criteria. Ethical criteria engender assumptions about the actors by focusing on their responsibilities. Instead of relying on criteria, Michel Foucault’s writing and lectures contributed to an awareness of the activities we take upon ourselves as ethical subjects. Foucault’s ethics seeks to examine the possibilities of the constitution of the subject and the transformation of subjectivity. The topic of this conceptual research is the contribution of “care of the self” and parrhesia to ethics in education. Foucault offers an avenue of understanding the formation of ethical subjects in their educational interrelationships. ii Preface This thesis is original, unpublished and independent work by the author, Bruce Moghtader. iii Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. ii Preface ............................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ v Dedication ......................................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1: Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Foucault and Education ......................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Overview of the Chapters ...................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 2: Historian of Thought ........................................................................................ 5 2.1 The History Teacher .............................................................................................................. 5 2.2 Foucault’s Methodology and Methods ................................................................................ 13 2.3 Critique ................................................................................................................................ 19 Chapter 3: Present Educational Ethics ............................................................................. 27 3.1 Dewey’s Experiential Ethic ................................................................................................. 28 3.2 Relational Ethics .................................................................................................................. 36 Chapter 4: Archaeology and Genealogy .......................................................................... 47 4.1 Madness and Reason ........................................................................................................... 48 4.2 The Discursive Subject ........................................................................................................ 53 4.3 The Non-discursive Subject ................................................................................................ 64 Chapter 5: Power and Subjectivity ................................................................................... 78 5.1 Political Spirituality and Governmentality .......................................................................... 79 5.2 Foucault’s Corrective Subject ............................................................................................. 85 5.3 Ethics, Problematization and Transformation ..................................................................... 91 Chapter 6: Educational Ethics .......................................................................................... 96 6.1 Education, Not Politics ........................................................................................................ 97 6.2 Philosophy as Askesis ....................................................................................................... 106 6.3 Foucault and the Present Past ............................................................................................ 111 Chapter 7: Implications and Conclusion ........................................................................ 120 References ...................................................................................................................... 130 iv Acknowledgements I am deeply grateful to my supervisor, Dr. William Pinar, for his guidance, encouragement and trust. I am grateful to my committee member Dr. Barbara Weber, for her kind attention and warm support. I am indebted to my advisor, Dr. Jennifer Vadeboncoeur, for her ongoing support and care since my entry to the department. I extend my gratitude to Dr. Claudia Ruitenberg, Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, Dr. Shelley Hymel, Dr. Sandra Mathison, Dr. Susan Gardner, Dr. Jeremy Carpendale, Dr. Timothy Racine, Dr. Stuart Richmond and Dr. Charles Bingham for their teachings. Kate Porter, Richard Porter and Firouzeh Peyvandi, thank you for coming into my life. Jake Locke, thank you for being here. Family, I cannot express my gratitude for your love. My friends, I am indebted to the joyous moments, mysteries and conversations we shared. v Dedication To my mother and mothers and to those whose love and care assists life. This work is also dedicated to its own subject, Michel Foucault. vi Chapter 1: Introduction What is this action of the other that is necessary for the constitution of the subject by [her]/himself? … What is this helping hand, this education, which is not an education but something different or more than education? (Foucault, 2005, p. 134) Ancient and contemporary education owes much to Socrates’ advice to live an “examined life.” Education in this sense is an existential quest. Martha Nussbaum (2002, p. 290) proposed that by developing Socrates’ thought Stoic philosophers, such as Seneca, emphasized in education a “capacity to be fully human,” “by which he means self-aware, self-governing, and capable of recognizing and respecting the humanity of all our fellow human beings.” The ethics of contemporary education continues on this path of fostering an ethos that is subjective and participatory. The significance of each person’s contribution to the process of education, William Pinar (2011) stressed, assists an understanding of subjectivity “within” power relations (p. 32). In this context, the works of philosopher Michel Foucault is of significance for education and developing ethical relations. Foucault’s scholarship explored the exercise of personal power in relation to the knowledge obtained in a culture. His early works, prior to 1978, engaged in questioning and making visible our vulnerabilities and limitations in his studies of discourse, knowledge and power. His later works, from 1978 to his death, advocated for a historical understanding of activities we take upon ourselves to form ourselves as ethical subjects. By studying the Greco-Roman philosophical practices, Foucault’s later works reintroduced the ancient ethical imperative of the “care of the self,” as the active day-to-day enactment of living an examined life. 1 In this thesis, I postulate that Foucault’s questioning of the ways we know ourselves and his questioning of the ways we conduct ourselves assists thinking and action in present educational ethics. By investigating Foucault’s ethics in education, this thesis explores the question: How do we form ourselves as ethical subjects? This along with other questions explored by Foucault works against a subject and object binary in education. This introductory chapter first addresses how Foucault’s ethics contributes to education. Second, it provides an overview of the chapters. 1.1 Foucault and Education Foucault’s scholarship was an examination of how we know ourselves and what our relation is to knowledge. His work contributes to present theories on education, first by decentralizing the modern educational subject and second by considering the possibility of the formation of dispersed modes of ethical subjects. By questioning a universal understanding of ethical criteria, Foucault’s scholarship suggests that we withhold assumptions, to some degree, about the other and who the other is to be and become. He positioned curiosity in care as an avenue of enactment of the subject towards itself and others. By reawakening ancient philosophical and spiritual practices, Foucault entertained the possibility of self-formation. The possible strength of this perspective can be found in moving away from the conception of ethics as codes, rules and norms. The relevance of Foucault’s ethics to education highlights the inseparability of persons from their experiences and their active role in their own transformation. Foucault problematized modern political power by reconstructing the activity of government as the conduct individuals undertake to govern themselves. In this