The Violence of Care: An Analysis of Foucault’s Pastor

Abstract

Michel Foucault begins his 1977-1978 lecture series–Security, Territory, Population–by stating that he will investigate the vague concept of biopower introduced in The Will to Knowledge and Society Must Be Defended. 1 Famously, or perhaps frustratingly, Foucault never explicitly develops the concept of biopower in Security, Territory, Population or in subsequent work. Rather much of Security, Territory, Population is devoted to a lengthy analysis of the shepherd 2 in Hebrew and Christian contexts as the historical root of pastoral power. This is not to suggest that Foucault’s focus on the shepherd and governmental practice in Security, Territory, Populationis a turn away from the problems of biopower introduced in The Will to Knowledge and Society Must Be Defended. Rather, I will argue with Roberto Esposito that pastoral power is “the first genealogical incunabulum of biopower.” 3 That pastoral power provides the first example of life itself being seized and governed. Thus Foucault’s focus on the pastor in Security, Territory, Populationwill be read as an investigation into the genealogical root of biopower. This paper will address Foucault’s analysis of the Hebrew and Christian pastor and argue that Foucault’s analysis of pastoral power in Security, Territory, Population neglects an important characteristic of the shepherd/pastor figure: violence