“Uruguay as a problem”. A reading of Methol Ferré’s work from a Foucauldian perspective

Abstract

Foucaultian problematization manifests a mode of philosophical analysis in which that which is presented as the object of thought necessarily implies a set of operations that make thought itself possible. This leads us to investigate under the following conviction: the objects of thought are not evident. Starting from Foucault's critical perspective, we identify in the concept of problematization a valuable contribution to the study of practices of the self, which in turn places classic themes such as sexuality, madness, and prison as problems of government. Problems become objects of thought in the sense that they become objects of government. Although discursive and non-discursive practices account for the emergence of a problem, it is the practices of the self in terms of problematization that allow us to mark the ethical dimension in the construction of a problem. Government as a way in which men govern themselves through problems (sexuality, madness, prison) and the possibilities of their reformulations (of the problems) implies changes in the way they are governed. In this sense, we will first work on Foucaultian problematization as a methodology of analysis and its contribution to making ethical aspects visible, and secondly, how the concept of government contributes to the critical scope of problematization. Thirdly, we will apply the relationships previously explored to the work “Uruguay as a problem” by Uruguayan thinker Alberto Methol Ferré. We argue that the work of the Uruguayan thinker can be read as thinking through problems, in this case Uruguay as a problem. This problem involves a form of sovereign existence and, in turn, presents a critical approach that seeks to change the parameters by which Uruguay was governed at the end of the 1960s. The La Plata Basin expresses the postulation of a space for regional government, which, as an event, will generate multiple effects when establishing regional identities and common political and economic relationships for the Southern Cone.