Against Hobbes by Pierre Clastres and... Foucault

Abstract

In “As Malhas do Poder”, a conference delivered in 1981, Foucault refers to the work of Pierre Clastres, who seeks to think about the issue of power in terms of technologies. Clastres seems close to Foucault, because the first was able to emancipate himself from the primacy and privilege of rule and prohibiting, and Clastres contrasts both with the sociological approach inspired by Durkheim and Lévi-Strauss and with the legal approach inspired by Hobbes. The criticism of the latter by Foucault differs, however, from the counter-Hobbes of Clastres. Although both pay attention to the microphysics of power, as well as the physics of war, Foucaut's intention is not to conjure up the state or pave the way for a “savage” democracy.