Foucault and freedom In addition: The Foucault Reader has proved useful already:
p. 46:
But if we are not to settle for the affirmation or the empty
dream of freedom, it seems, to me that this historico-critical attitude [***]
must also be an experimental one . I mean that this work
done at the limits of ourselves must, on the one hand, open up
a realm of historical inquiry and, on the other, put itself to the
test of reality, of contemporary reality, both to grasp the points
where change is possible and desirable, and to determine the
precise form this change should take . This means that the historical
ontology of ourselves must turn away from all projects
that claim to be global or radical. In fact we know from experience
that the claim to escape from the system of contemporary
reality so as to produce the overall programs of another society,
of another way of thinking, another culture, another vision of
the world, has led only to the return of the most dangerous
traditions.
***
This entails an obvious consequence: that criticism is no longer going to be practiced in the search for formal structures with universal value, but rather as a historical investigation into the events that have led us to constitute ourselves and to recognize ourselves as subjects of what we are doing, thinking,
saying.