Assessed essay questions for PH348, Summer 2016:
1. Critically assess Foucault’s definition of philosophy as “the politics of truth.”
2. Critically assess the role and meaning of “truth” in Foucault’s The Birth of Biopolitics.
3. Critically assess Foucault’s claim that “biopower” has become the dominant form of power today.
4. To what extent is the problem of security connected with the birth of biopower? Discuss in relation
to Foucault’s Security, Territory, Population and The Birth of Biopolitics.
5. Critically assess Foucault’s claim that neoliberalism is a “technology of government.”
6 Critically assess the meaning and limits of neoliberalism as a “system of freedom” (Foucault).
7. Is the neoliberal subject a free subject?
8. Critically the concept of “competitive order” in neoliberalism.
9. How convincing is Bataille’s distinction between ‘productive’ and ‘unproductive’ expenditure?
10. To what extent is Bataille’s conception of “sovereignty” a viable alternative to the (neo)liberal
subject?