PlasticPills - Philosophy & Critical Theory Podcast Pill Pod 42 - FIGHT NIGHT: Derrida vs. Foucault
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May 28, 2021 In this podcast, Jacques 'Derridevil' Derrida challenges Michel Foucault on the topic of metaphysics. After a crippling blow, Foucault is frozen out. The podcast explores the critiques of Foucault and the legacy of Descartes, the relationship between reason, madness, and power, the complexity of language in political philosophy, and the limitations of binary thinking.
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Derrida vs. Foucault
- Jacques Derrida criticized Michel Foucault's reading of Descartes, calling it "naive."
- This caused a 20-year rift between them, ending only after Derrida's arrest for weed possession.
Foucault's *History of Madness*
- Foucault's History of Madness analyzes the construction of reason by demarcating it from unreason.
- He views Descartes as pivotal in this process, where the mad become the paradigmatic unreasonable figure.
Descartes on Madness
- Foucault argues that Descartes establishes a binary between normal dreamers and abnormal madmen.
- Derrida, however, contends that this is a misinterpretation of Descartes' argument.