Select and respond to one of the three topics indicated below.
TOPICS
1) In his Foucault, Veyne takes great care in establishing Foucault’s theory of history, especially with regard to discourses, historical formations, and dispositifs. Given these central concepts, along with any others you may deem essential to this end, how does Veyne conceptualize Foucault’s theory of history and the attendant methods Foucault employs in carrying out this distinct form of historical inquiry?
2) As Michael Goddard argues:[1] in Kaìros, Negri begins his great triptych with an account of materialist knowledge and temporality as developed, respectively, through the concepts of ‘the common’ and ‘kairòs,’ the two of which together comprise something that might simply be termed ‘the temporality of the event’; in Alma Venus, he then proceeds with a materialist ontology, on the one hand, of power as potentia, or constituent power, and, on the other, of power as potestas, or constituted power; and finally, in Multitudo, he concludes by way of an account of processes of real constitution and the possible emergence of new forces of transformation, or what might simply be termed a post-Marxist communism. Write an essay in which you develop the analyses of these central themes as set forth in Negri’s Kaìros, Alma Venus, Multitudo.
3) Cox famously pursues at least two lines of questioning in “Social Forces, States and World Orders.” His primary interest, of course, consists in establishing a critical theory of international relations, but, prior to doing so, he develops a relatively brief yet extremely cogent critique of problem-solving theory. Write an essay in which you examine both Cox’ critique of problem-solving theory and, above all, his conception of a critical theory of international relations.
