The questions of how a Foucauldian or a Foucault says which
discourse is the right or the true one has several possible answers.
1) the Nietzschean answer, why truth, why not falsehood? raises the issue
of rhetoric or discourse as opposed to truth, which then presents itself
as universal, beyond language, and therefore, unknowable.
2) the historical answer, which is that the experts establish truth,
whereas the Foucauldian establishes why the experts choose one truth
rather than another. The Foucauldian explains the conditions, situations,
influences, etc., that move the experts, rather than the experts' choice.
3) the postmodern answer, which is that truth is not universal but local,
a matter of where or how the interpreter is situated and not of what
criteria an answer or solution must meet to make itself acceptable.
I suspect that these answers are not all that distinct; in any
case, none of them will satisfy those who believe that we can establish a
method or a form identifying true answers and our failing to do so
discredits our theories.
Philip Goldstein
discourse is the right or the true one has several possible answers.
1) the Nietzschean answer, why truth, why not falsehood? raises the issue
of rhetoric or discourse as opposed to truth, which then presents itself
as universal, beyond language, and therefore, unknowable.
2) the historical answer, which is that the experts establish truth,
whereas the Foucauldian establishes why the experts choose one truth
rather than another. The Foucauldian explains the conditions, situations,
influences, etc., that move the experts, rather than the experts' choice.
3) the postmodern answer, which is that truth is not universal but local,
a matter of where or how the interpreter is situated and not of what
criteria an answer or solution must meet to make itself acceptable.
I suspect that these answers are not all that distinct; in any
case, none of them will satisfy those who believe that we can establish a
method or a form identifying true answers and our failing to do so
discredits our theories.
Philip Goldstein