Power, Justice and the Role of Intellectuals in the Chomsky-Foucault Debate

by Hanna Liebiedieva^1
1 Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Kyiv, Ukraine)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29202/fhi/15/6
Received: 2 March 2021 / Accepted: 29 March 2021 / Published: 25 April 2021

The modern Ukrainian society is currently in the process of establishing a dialogue between citizens and government. The government’s expectations and degree of public confidence are in a deep crisis, which is revealed in numerous acts of civil disobedience that Ukraine has faced during the last decades. In this context, it is important to refer to the similar experience of other countries. When in the late 1960s, France was rocked by the events of civil disobedience, and the United States saw the protests against the Vietnam War, the leading philosophers of those times and those countries, Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault, reflected and shared their opinions on these events. Their positions clashed in 1971 at the Justice vs. Power debate. The discussion demonstrates two opposing approaches, thus making it possible to explore the relationship between power and justice as a whole. The intellectuals play a key role in this relationship.

Keywords: power, justice, debate, civil disobedience, citizens and government, social institutions

Chomsky, Noam (1969) American Power and the New Mandarins. New York: Pantheon Books.

---

Chomsky, Noam (1965) Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.

---

Chomsky, Noam (1966) Cartesian Linguistics: A Chapter in the History of Rationalist Thought. New York: Harper and Row.

---

Chomsky, Noam (1968) Language and Mind. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.

---

Elders, Fons (2013) Philosophers in Debate. Amsterdam: Elders special productions.

---

Foucault, Michel, Chomsky, Noam and John Rajchman (2001) Chomsky-Foucault debate on human nature. New York: The New press.

---

Foucault, Michel (1976) Mental Illness and Psychology. New York: Harper and Row.

---

Foucault, Michel (1965) Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason Abridged. London: Tavistock.

---

Foucault, Michel (2002) Archaeology of Knowledge. London: Routledge.

---

Foucault, Michel (2008) The Birth of Biopolitics. New York: MACMILLAN.

---

Gutting, Gary (2006) The Cambridge Companion to Foucault. Cambridge University Press, 2006.

---

Macey, David (2005) Michel Foucault. London: Reaktion Books.

---

McGilvray, James (2005) The Cambridge Companion to Chomsky. Cambridge University Press.

---

McGilvray, James (2013) Chomsky: Language, Mind and Politics. Polity Press.

---

Smith, Neil (1999) Chomsky: Ideas and Ideals. Cambridge University Press, 1999.

---

Wilkin, Peter (1999) Chomsky and Foucault on Human Nature and Politics: An Essential Difference? Social Theory and Practice, Volume 25, Issue 2, 177-210 https://doi.org/10.5840/soctheorpract199925217

Liebiedieva, Hanna (2021) Power, Justice and the Role of Intellectuals in the ChomskyFoucault Debate. Future Human Image, Volume 15, 66-73. https://doi.org/10.29202/fhi/15/6