ISBN : 9782296545458
THE HUMAN PASTORATE AND "LA VIE BÊTE
This paper came about as a result of my surprise at Foucault's reference to pastoral power as an "important form" of power (I refer here to the text "Omnes et singulatim" and some chapters in Sécurité, Territoire, Population). Up until the point when he specifically addresses the question of the Christian pastorate, he always analyses pastoral power exclusively from the point of view of the pastor himself, of his actions, of the motives and principles that guide his actions; from the point of view of the "ethics" in which this exercise of power is rooted, and also from the point of view of his subjectivity or of the modes of subjectivization which are typical for the kind of power he uses. Foucault never takes the pastorate into account from the point of view of the herd or flock itself. The herd, the sheep, is constantly and exclusively taken into consideration as the sheer...