Since we're proceeding along with the first batch of readings for the Foucault Seminar, I thought I'd post my notes here. As this is my first time through many of these essays, it'll most likely be a hodge-podge of synopses and attempts to pilfer bits that apply to Intellectual Property rather than any Deep Thoughts on my part. I'm feeling a little guilty about not attempting closer readings of these, but I suppose the nature of a five-week reading seminar is to encourage participants to just plow on through. My goal is to cover as much ground as possible and find the parts that apply to my current project, and then revisit those in the last half of summer.

My synopses are always very short. I guess it comes from old journalism training and the notion that if you can't reduce your concept to 25 words or less, then you must not understand it. I wouldn't dare try to reduce Foucault's grocery list to 25 words, but I still have the notion that brief summaries suggest at least a decent general understanding. Maybe, maybe not - but it is my way.

The first text is What Is Enlightenment?. It has four primary sections:
1. Reflection on Kant's Was is Aufklarung
2. Reflection on Baudelaire as exemplar of the proper attitude of modernity
3. Investigation of whether The Enlightenment and Humanism are equivalent (he concludes that they aren't: "tension, not identity")
4. Practical applications and method

The overarching message is:
Enlightenment is all about attitude. We must, as 1 - 3 suggest, assume the appropriate attitude in order to construct a "historical ontology of ourselves" and thus venture toward a state of Enlightenment. This attitude demands gonzo engagement rather than passive absorption. (Baudelaire: we must eat and be eaten by knowledge, be drunken always, etc.)
We are the subjects of study via our discourse and actions. These must be systematically studied, especially with regard to (inter)connections with the axes of knowledge, power and ethics. Attention must be given to both general and specific elements. (Hence Foucault's topics of "Birth of the Clinic" (specific) vs "The Order of Things" or "Archaeology of Knowledge" (general)).
We must perform and embrace a "labor of diverse inquiries." As Kant wrote in the piece referenced here, "Have courage to use your own reason!"

It also includes interesting implications about reason and freedom, and I'm still working on understanding those.

A bit-by-bit outline of the essay is here. A deeper reading by one of my classmates is here.