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Power, Ruse, and Resistance in Societies of Control: Canguilhem on Algeria, the Republic, and Education

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Georges Canguilhem and the Problem of Error

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Abstract

This chapter shows that after Canguilhem became the premier French historian and philosopher of science in 1955, he remained a political philosopher deeply concerned with his historical moment. His systematization of Alain’s political thought during the Algerian war testifies to this and suggests the importance of both for later French political thought. I focus, however, on Canguilhem’s uses of Alain in his analyses of this colonial and civil war and other dangers of the postwar period. Central here is his reflection on the importance of rusing, whether in pursuit of justice or attempts to manipulate public belief. Against such manipulations, he defended the importance of education, exemplified through his essay on the role of experience and adventure, that is to say, error, in life.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Alain ([1934] 1988, 127).

  2. 2.

    See Limoges (1994, 409). This bibliography includes key dates in Canguilhem’s career.

  3. 3.

    See Le Sueur (2006).

  4. 4.

    See Canguilhem (1953) and Talcott (2017).

  5. 5.

    Libres Propos, literally free or open discussions, could perhaps be fairly translated as Free Speech.

  6. 6.

    See also Roth (2013), an important work on Alain’s importance for Canguilhem.

  7. 7.

    There is also, however, the Marrou affair. See Canguilhem et al. (1956).

  8. 8.

    Camille Limoges also highlights Alain’s relevance for Canguilhem’s Algeria articles (Limoges 2015, 24).

  9. 9.

    On this, see Leterre (2006).

  10. 10.

    English language histories of philosophy have, in any case, devoted no or little attention to him. That Alain was the first awardee of the Grand Prix National des Lettres in 1951 might seem to confirm that his contribution was not to philosophy but literature and writing.

  11. 11.

    Granel argues that, notwithstanding Sartre’s criticisms or Merleau-Ponty’s judgments, that Alain’s thinking actually intersects with phenomenology in important ways.

  12. 12.

    The analyses below would be useful in considering connections between Alain, Canguilhem, and French intellectual life in the 1960s and 1970s. Foucault’s writings on both power and ethics may deserve special consideration here; see, to begin, Foucault (1978).

  13. 13.

    Althusser ([1970] 2000), famously, analyzes interpellation’s role in subject formation. His account should be compared to the one given by Alain in Canguilhem’s edition of his political writings.

  14. 14.

    Canguilhem, in his own work, historicizes Bacon’s dictum in a way that Alain does not by considering how the idea that knowledge is power was deployed by medical doctors and positivists in the nineteenth century (Canguilhem 1943, 41).

  15. 15.

    Since he develops these thoughts most famously later in his career, I will address this explicitly elsewhere. That said, his later thoughts are clearly implied in points discussed below.

  16. 16.

    The government of oneself is, of course, a theme that Foucault will explore in late lecture courses at the Collège de France, yet another reason to read Foucault alongside Alain.

  17. 17.

    Kantian and Stoic echoes resound throughout Alain’s writing. Indeed, in Canguilhem’s selection, Marcus Aurelius is cited numerous times. Alain insists, nevertheless, that the ruse of the governed has only begun to be developed.

  18. 18.

    He had long objected to colonialism. See Canguilhem (1931).

  19. 19.

    See Thibaudet (1927).

  20. 20.

    Here, as elsewhere, Canguilhem suggests that these trends had their start not in France, but in the heart of capitalism, the United State, and with Taylorism in particular. His overview here is worth comparing to Foucault’s later distinctions between forms of power according to their relation to norms.

  21. 21.

    See, for instance, Canguilhem (1955).

  22. 22.

    See Fourier (1996, 90) for a reference to janissaries, though I have not found the exact quotation.

  23. 23.

    This would be worth comparing, eventually, to the compelling argument that Canguilhem read Foucault’s Order of Things as a historical account of his own experience, the exhaustion of the cogito. See Roth (2013) and Foucault (1966).

  24. 24.

    See also Canguilhem (1960). This final article in La Dépêche du Midi protests a proposed law to double punishments for civil servants, among whom would be included teachers, who break the law.

  25. 25.

    The phrase “symbolic form” invites comparison with Ernst Cassirer (1944).

  26. 26.

    The need for a certain secrecy, for a reserve, should not however be confused with total dissimulation. See Canguilhem (1929, 256).

  27. 27.

    On this etymology, see Barney et al. (2006, 305).

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  1. Department of Humanities, University of the Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Samuel Talcott

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Talcott, S. (2019). Power, Ruse, and Resistance in Societies of Control: Canguilhem on Algeria, the Republic, and Education. In: Georges Canguilhem and the Problem of Error. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00779-9_1

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