In response to Alan C. Hudson's
>So, THIS IS MY MAIN QUESTION, is there - does anyone know of attempts - a
>way of developing a normative framework that doesn't depend upon a
>hypothetical situation in which social relations aren't characterized by
>(asymmetries of) power?
>IS NORMATIVITY ALWAYS ABOUT POWER/NOT-POWER?
>More generally, do normative frameworks necessarily work with hypothetical
>utopias (ideal speech situations for example)?
I wrote:
>> Normativity is a terminal form of power and necessarily needs a king.
Murray K. Simpson responded:
>I'm not sure what you mean here by "necessarily needs a king". The king
>was a feature of power in the classical period,. By contrast the modern
>era is characterised by disciplinary, normalising power 'without a
>centre', no? Or are you simply saying that the efforts of Habermas et
>al to construct a normative framework require a king and, for that
>reason, are doomed to fail?
Each era has its own normalising power. The modern era's is disciplinary. Other eras
have other normalising powers. Wasn't the history of sexuality supposed to be a
history of normalising powers? The power of the king represents the technology of
power whose raison d'être is to set up normative frameworks. That's what I was
thinking when I said that the king is necessary. The minute we mention a normative
framework we need a king, (that is, some hypothetical utopia) but they are not all doomed to
failure. They work. And they create who we are. The normative framework necessarily
normalises us. It is the way we use the normative framework to normalise ourselves that
interests Foucault. Isn't Habermas's criticism directed towards the content of the framework?
Foucault's work, I think, centres on the relationship between the normative content
(technologies of power) and the normalising event (technologies of the self).
Daniel
========================================
Daniel M. Goldstein
Faculty of Theology
University of Montreal
CP 6128, succ Centre-ville
Montreal, Quebec, H3C 3J7
http://mistral.ere.umontreal.ca/~goldsted
========================================
>So, THIS IS MY MAIN QUESTION, is there - does anyone know of attempts - a
>way of developing a normative framework that doesn't depend upon a
>hypothetical situation in which social relations aren't characterized by
>(asymmetries of) power?
>IS NORMATIVITY ALWAYS ABOUT POWER/NOT-POWER?
>More generally, do normative frameworks necessarily work with hypothetical
>utopias (ideal speech situations for example)?
I wrote:
>> Normativity is a terminal form of power and necessarily needs a king.
Murray K. Simpson responded:
>I'm not sure what you mean here by "necessarily needs a king". The king
>was a feature of power in the classical period,. By contrast the modern
>era is characterised by disciplinary, normalising power 'without a
>centre', no? Or are you simply saying that the efforts of Habermas et
>al to construct a normative framework require a king and, for that
>reason, are doomed to fail?
Each era has its own normalising power. The modern era's is disciplinary. Other eras
have other normalising powers. Wasn't the history of sexuality supposed to be a
history of normalising powers? The power of the king represents the technology of
power whose raison d'être is to set up normative frameworks. That's what I was
thinking when I said that the king is necessary. The minute we mention a normative
framework we need a king, (that is, some hypothetical utopia) but they are not all doomed to
failure. They work. And they create who we are. The normative framework necessarily
normalises us. It is the way we use the normative framework to normalise ourselves that
interests Foucault. Isn't Habermas's criticism directed towards the content of the framework?
Foucault's work, I think, centres on the relationship between the normative content
(technologies of power) and the normalising event (technologies of the self).
Daniel
========================================
Daniel M. Goldstein
Faculty of Theology
University of Montreal
CP 6128, succ Centre-ville
Montreal, Quebec, H3C 3J7
http://mistral.ere.umontreal.ca/~goldsted
========================================