Foucault’s contrasts never extended beyond European traditions

Evidence

Even when Foucault energetically analyzed the emergence of the modern European phenomena of power, knowledge, surveillance, health, and so forth, his comparativist framework, far from being consistent or systematic, was in the preceding European contexts, whose striking and dramatic impact can be seen, for instance, in the transformations of punitive forms and torture (with Foucault presenting, for instance, Damien’s ordeal when he was guilty of regicide before suddenly leaping to its modern contrast) or in the Christian origins of telling the truth as a practice through which modern forms of power have been reenacted. Foucault’s points of contrast, however illustrative, are always European, save for the occasional invocations of Greek or Roman forms (which admittedly increased during the last few years of his life). According to the theory of paradigms, contrasts are most useful when they are crisp, sharp, and—especially—alien to the tradition being investigated. — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 34

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader postcolonial critique of Foucault’s Eurocentrism; also resonates with the body of work on comparative method in Area Studies.
• SEED: An essay angle: ‘What Foucault never saw’ — how the parochialism of French theory’s self-contrasts limited its diagnostics, and what an alien contrast (e.g., Islamic legal tradition) would have shown him.