Foucault’s anti-Marxism blinded him to capital as domination

Evidence

The wholesale refusal of Marxist categories, logics, and historiography allows Foucault to bring forth undertheorized aspects of the emergence of political economy and permits a novel staging of the relationships between liberalism, the state, the economy, and the modern subject. However, this refusal also has its costs, especially in taking the measure of the unique dominations entailed in neoliberalism. Thus, Foucault’s seemingly light judgments against neoliberalism pertain not only to his admirable commitment to excavating the novelties that only a genealogical curiosity can discover and not only to the fact that neoliberalism had not yet become hegemonic or fused with discourses that would integrate business, economy, and governance as well as the individual into national economic aims. Rather, Foucault averted his glance from capital itself as a historical and social force. Appearing with striking infrequency in these lectures, when capital is mentioned, it is usually to heap scorn on the idea that it follows necessary logics or entails a system of domination. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 150

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s broader theoretical project tracing how post-Marxist theory (Foucault, postmodernism) may have disarmed critique of capitalist domination. — connects to: Foucault’s own studies converge on the rise of industrial capitalism despite his anti-reductionist stance; Foucault’s notion of power erases class and revolution — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 373; Foucault’s anti-economism leads him to erase class and rebellion — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 830

Broader Connections

• Foucault’s notion of power erases class and revolution #corroborates (0.85) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 373
• Foucault’s own studies converge on the rise of industrial capitalism despite his anti-reductionist stance #corroborates (0.80)