[pattusk]

I always found it strange that Foucault has come to be identified, in the mainstream view of his work but also in academic circles, with radical leftism. It's hard to read Discipline and punish or any of his work on biopolitics and not sense the underlying criticism of the welfare state and "big government". His libertarianism made him at odds with many French Marxist thinkers of his era and I suppose must have played a part in his relocation to America.

I think that Foucault found capitalism and the freedom it granted absolutely fascinating (just like Marx before him was fascinated with capitalism's ability to increase wealth), which eventually led him to look into thinkers like Hayek, Friedman and Say. Anedoctal but imo significant: his last partner and the executor of his will now works for a neoliberal think tank.

The left-wing magazine Jacobin had ran an interesting inyerview on the subject of Foucault's neoliberal inclinations some time back, worth a read if the subject interests you: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/12/foucault-interview/

[conanbatt]

He was anti-marxist and anti-statist. Definitely found a lot valuable in neoliberalism, something left-leaning intellectuals would probably like to ignore.

Briefly looking at his history, it does seem to be he was very opportunistic on his positioning, following the sentiment and political movements of france.

[woodandsteel]

That's interesting, I wasn't aware that he had turned rather libertarian. But I must ask, did he agree with everything in standard libertarianism, or did he have some significant differences?

[justin66]

> standard libertarianism

What's that?

[woodandsteel]

You are apparently aware of significant differences among libertarians, so why don't you list some.

[justin66]

That's a baffling reply. I think the idea of there being a "standard libertarianism" is quite odd but it's your phrase that could use some clarification, not mine.