Although I’d read the French lectures, and probably could have written the endorsement for the English translation anyway, I did ask for the ms. and have now finished reading it. It’s a very good translation – again by Graham Burchell. I should also note the work Frédéric Gros did as editor. Most people probably know this, but the lectures are based on transcriptions from tape recordings, supplemented by Foucault’s manuscript notes. In this course there are a few instances were quite long ms. sections that were not delivered are included in notes.
Lots of things in the course, but a few things that struck me on reading it again.
– how much of the material is on the cynics, which forms the focus of the course.
– Foucault noting at the end of his detailed discussion of Socrates and the Apology that every philosophy professor should lecture on this at least once in their career. Now he has. Salvate animam meam.
– the brief but interesting discussion of King Lear.
– How political the lectures are, at least in the sense that he tries to insist on the political aspects of parrhesia. Essentially, he says, this is another stage in his long-running interest in the interrelations of the subject, truth and power.
– The asides where he talks about his discussions with Dumézil and Veyne about technical points.
– His remarks on the German secondary literature on cynicism. He notes that he’s been told about Sloterdijk’s recently published book Kritik der zynischen Vernunft. He’s not yet read it, but notes that ‘no critique of reason will be spared us’, as we’ve had pure, dialectical, political and now cynical. He notes that he’s been given some rather differing assessments of the book’s interest.
– The contrast between Spinoza and Leibniz, with the former as someone who follows an earlier model of living a philosophical life, whereas the latter was more modern because of his more practical engagement with a range of professions, and often working his philosophy through them. The point doesn’t quite work, as Foucault admits, but it’s interesting to think about.
– Some intriguing remarks about where he might go with the lectures in the next year – not delivered, of course. Foucault is clearly very unwell at this time – the lectures start later in the year, and Foucault notes his health on a few occasions.
The English translation is projected for April 2011.
