How Foucault Can Improve Sartre's Theory of Authentic Political Community

Abstract

In The Critique of Dialectical Reason (CDR), Sartre presents a the ory of groups which he thinks provides a foundation for authentic political community that is comprised of positive and constructive social relations. If his theory provides this foundation then it must apply to non-group settings, too. The problem is that Sartre does not provide an account for how his theory applies in non-group set tings. I believe that if we apply Michel Foucault's theoretical con structions of power, subjectivity, and freedom to this problem we can begin to provide such an account. If we make explicit underly ing dynamics of power in our social relations, we can actualize Sartre's goal of genuine reciprocity between individuals in non group settings. We can also improve upon Sartre's theory in the group situation itself. In Being and Nothingness (BN), Sartre's pessimistic picture of social relations occurs within the context of the individual's project to be the objective foundation of his own subjectivity, i.e., God. Yet Sartre argues toward the end of BN that this project may be replaced by a new project in which an ethics of authentic existence requires our search for freedom to always include the freedom of others.1 If so, then the mutual objectification that gives rise to con flict and hostility can be replaced by reciprocal cooperation and con structive social relations.