The Chomsky Foucault Debate
28 February 2013 by Clare O'Farrell
Philippe Theophanidis on his blog Aphelis
links to a complete recording on youtube (as yet unsubtitled) of the
Foucault-Chomsky debate and provides detailed background on the history
of the recording and the various versions and publications of the
transcript.
For information on the controversy surrounding the removal of a youtube posting of this debate see Chomsky-Foucault debate removed due to copyright on the Roarmag.org site. See the chomsky.info site for a transcript of the debate
The Chomsky-Foucault Debate On Human Nature, New York: The New Press, 2006, pp. 57-58. Content of the transcript differs from the actual recording.
The video displayed [...] is a complete 1 hour 11 minutes video recording of the original television program titled “Menselijke Natuur En Ideale Maatschappij” (“Human Nature and Ideal Society”). It took place in November 1971 at the Eindhoven University of Technology, in Nederland, as part of the “International Philosophers Project”. It was recorded and broadcast by the Dutch National Television. The video includes opening credits, an introduction by Prof. L. W. Nauta, the entrance of Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault, the debate itself moderated by Dutch philosopher Fons Elders, a period of discussion with the audience and end credits. It was uploaded by user withDefiance on Feb. 25, 2013. [UPDATE–May 3, 2013] A “Proper Subtitles” version with English subtitles for the Dutch and French parts was completed on May 3, 2013. The video was also edited to adjust its actual running time (i.e. to get rid of the 14 minutes of black at the end of it). The video embedded above was updated accordingly.
It’s important to stress out that this is a complete recording of the television program and not of the debate itself. On the television program, the debate was interrupted by Prof. L. W. Nauta for commentary and parts were edited out. Therefor, there are large sections of the available transcript (which was published by Fons Elders in 1974) that are not included in the complete video recording of the television program.
Read more…
For information on the controversy surrounding the removal of a youtube posting of this debate see Chomsky-Foucault debate removed due to copyright on the Roarmag.org site. See the chomsky.info site for a transcript of the debate
Posted in Controversies, Online commentary, Video and audio, Work by Foucault | 3 Comments
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Philosophers DVD: Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucaultby Clare O'Farrell |
Philosophers DVD
Author(s): Moderator and commentator Fons Elders
Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault
Sir Alfred Ayer and Arne Naess
Leszek Kolakowski and Henri Lefèbvre
Sir Karl Popper and Sir John Eccles
A series by Fons Elders
Author(s): Moderator and commentator Fons Elders
Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault
Sir Alfred Ayer and Arne Naess
Leszek Kolakowski and Henri Lefèbvre
Sir Karl Popper and Sir John Eccles
A series by Fons Elders
This DVD is available at a more reasonable price from Fons Elders' site than from Icarus films.
In
1971, a Dutch initiative called the International Philosophers Project
brought together the leading thinkers of the day for a series of
one-on-one debates. The participants included intellectual superstars
Alfred Ayer and Arne Naess, Karl Popper and John Eccles, Leszek
Kolakowski and Henri Lefèbvre, and – most notably, in a now justifiably
famous exchange – Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault.
This
two-disc set collects all four remarkable conversations, along with
introductions and commentary by Dutch philosopher and writer Fons
Elders. Elders moderated the original debates – hand-picking each of the
participants after spending some time getting to know them. Now,
looking back four decades later, he offers perspective and context,
summarizing the arguments and highlighting the key moments of each
debate.
DISC ONE (80 and 74 minutes)
Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault 
The
Chomsky-Foucault debate has become a much-studied classic. This DVD
captures all the energy and passion of the two philosophers, as they
discuss whether or not some form of universal human nature – an inherent
ability to understand language and scientific concepts, for instance –
exists, or whether our responses are purely socially and culturally
conditioned.
Alfred Ayer and Arne Naess
A
lively debate between British empiricist Alfred Ayer, who champions a
limited skepticism, and Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess, the founder of
the deep ecology movement, whose philosophy embraces
interconnectedness.
DISC TWO (80 and 77 minutes)
Karl Popper and John Eccles
Historian
of science Karl Popper and his close friend, Nobel-prize-winning
neuroscientist John Eccles, discuss Popper's famous criterion of
falsifiability: the idea that a statement is only scientific if it could
possibility be proved false, which he had articulated against the
traditional positivist view of the scientific method.
Leszek Kolakowski and Henri Lefèbvre
Polish
philosopher Leszek Kolakowski and French thinker Henri Lefèbvre (both
former Communist Party members) debate the ongoing significance of
Marxism and the concept of alienation – while at the same time
struggling to define what a future, post-capitalist society might hold.
Each
of these conversations captures the intellectual and social ferment of
the late 1960s and early 1970s, when dramatic social and economic
transformation seemed imminent - and philosophical questions underpinned
discussions about what form the new society would take. Though many of
the questions under discussion are timeless, this social and political
context gives them a particular sense of urgency.
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