Foucault in Iran

Abstract

The book advances a novel reading of Foucault’s writings on the Iranian revolution and further shows how his encounter with the revolution informs his later lectures on ethics, spirituality, and enlightenment. Foucault saw in the revolution, particularly in its religious expression, an instance of his anti-teleological philosophy, a revolution that did not simply fit into the normative progressive discourses of history. What attracted him to the Iranian revolution was its ambiguity, precisely the same feature for which his critics ridiculed him. Rather than his fascination with death or his absorption in the aesthetics of violence, as his critics assert, it was the inexplicability of “the man in revolt” that motivated much of his writing on the Iranian revolution. He defined the indeterminacy of the revolutionary movement together with the inexplicability of the revolutionary subject as an expression of political spirituality. This concept led many of his detractors to accuse the anti-humanist philosopher of defending theocracy in order to advance his critique of modern governmentality and its disciplinary technologies.