From Norm to Language

Norms run through the argument of this volume. The utility principle is normative, as are Foucault's pleasures and pains, notwithstanding his refusal to norm them. What Bentham teaches us about Foucault's pleasures is that they cannot operate if they do not abide by a minimal norm, which is utilitarian in essence. Conversely, what Foucault teaches us about Bentham's pain is that utility cannot be construed as a monolithic norm. Instinct appears as the underside of motives for acts which do not comply with utility. Part I has shown how norms in Bentham and Foucault are not a scheme for assessing compliance or noncompliance to the norm; the opposition is not binary. Norms in Bentham and Foucault operate in a continuum between minimum compliance to the norm and maximum compliance. In utilitarian and biopolitical contexts, the norm is the utilitarian calculus of a cost/benefit assessment.