Foucault's Ethics of Power

located his importance in his genealogical critiques and in his phi-losophy ofpower. On the one hand, Foucault performs genealogical critiques of the practices surrounding modern punishment and sex, and on the other hand, his genealogies alert us to the dangers of new forms ofpower. However, the exact nature of the relationship between his genealogical critiques and his views on power remains a matter of dispute, for Foucault neither expressly states a program of critique, nor clearly articulates an account of power. The pur-pose of this paper, then, is to establish the relationship between the critical force of Foucault 's genealogy and his views power. The paper is divided into four main parts. In the first part, I elaborate the prominent objection that the critical force of Foucault 's genealogies is undermined by his notion of power. In the second part, I reconstruct Foucault 's account of power in considerable detail, and clarify the 'strategical mode l ' o f p o w e r which informs his genealogical critiques. In the third part, I establish the critical force of his genealogy by distinguishing two stages of genealogi-cal critique. Finally, I respond to the objection against Foucault and conclude that his account of power does not undermine his genealogical critiques, but rather provides them with radical criti-cal force and ultimately leads to a novel reconceptualization of ethics. 2. T h e Case Against Foucau l t Jürgen Habermas, Charles Taylor, and Michael Walzer all deny that Foucauldian genealogy is critical. 1 More specifically, they ar-gue that Foucaul l ' s understanding of cr i t ique is contradictory, incoherent, and nihilistic primarily for reasons tied to his views o