Foucault's "problematization"
 

in a separate note, Foucault explains his resistance to "polemic" writing, thinking, or conversation
 
Warner 154-6: "The alternative to polemic, an intellectual program more in keeping with the ethics of dialogue, Foucault calls 'problematization'"
 
"To problematize, in [our current] usage, means to complicate," but "[f]or Foucault it has a much richer meaning, connected with the argument in volumes 2 and 3 of History of Sexuality. There, he treats a problematic not just as an intellectual tangle, but as the practical horizon of intelligibility within which problems come to matter for people"
 
"the relation between problematization and activism must necessarily be unclear"
 
Foucault "does not say that problematization is more radical or more effective. He says it is morally essential, as well as harder and more fun [...] He sees it as a resource of humor and equanimity"

> from Michael Warner's Publics and Counterpublics (2002)

> tagged with #activism, #language, #conversation, #ethics

> created Jun 28, 2025 at 10:21:40 AM


> part of unfinished everything


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