That is very important in Foucault’s game, because you can see in the text that what Foucault is searching for is a theory, a non-moral theory, and a non-juridical theory. The challenge is to be free from morality and from the law. And he finds, I think, the solution in the writings of the economists. That is a celebration of the economists’ work, of your work. You propose a theory of man, a vision of man, that is non- moral and non-juridical. And that is, for him at this time, in this project naturally, very important.
And to make economics not only a theory, not only an observation or an analysis of wealth, but to make the shift from wealth to human behavior—the shift from wealth to value—and to make economics a science of evaluation. How do people make evaluations? That is a question of value. Naturally, value is close to wealth, but value is more complex.
What is very interesting for him in this respect is to conduct an analysis of law, in respect of the enforcement of law, that implies that there are only power relationships. And the relation between the agent and the power is only a fight—a calculus—absolutely free of moral questions or juridical ques- tions.
IS HUMAN CAPITAL A FICTION?
I think that is very important because, for Foucault, the man you produce by the economic analysis is not real. He is a fiction. This fiction is interesting. This fiction created new pos- sibilities. This kind of fiction could be dangerous, but it could also be interesting. But it is a fiction.
Foucault could read in your work how the agent, in the economy, is always deciding, making decisions. And for Foucault, with his theory of power, it was very difficult to think how the subject decides: he is decided by power relations.
Foucault’s vision of power relationships and the vision of the decision in your the- ory could have been very fruitful.
-> I think human capital has been a great fiction. It’s not been an unchanging fiction, the fiction has changed over time, but it’s been a great fiction. I’m proud of it. [Laughter]. But yes, it is a fiction. Nobody would deny it’s a fiction. But you have to say, is it a useful fiction?
http://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/uploads/pdf/BeckerEwaldFoucault.pdf