A reply on "reason", sept. 7, 1997

Ragnar wrote: >I am just writing a homework about postmodernism and if it
means that we
>live in a time where enlightenment is obsolete.
>What does Foucault say about reason in his books ?

My initial reflex is that you must elaborate on what you mean by "reason".
Then, if we accept that, as I interpret Foucault's writing, there are
un-ending riddles (or mazes) of struktures and relationships that influence
peoples' everyday life, aswell as the heart of our own business (Creating
knowledge at universities and colleges), then, in essence, the old notion
of reason looses it's usefullness.
I think that issues of power, control, identity et cetera can be
investigated from a whole range of philosophical and epistmological
stances, but Foucault's texts (e.g. on reason and reasoning) help us
understand that there are no absolutes in life.
Kent Lofgren

University of Umea
Pedagogiska Institutionen
S-901 87 Umea
Sweden

Tel: 46 + (0)90 - 786 64 32 (office)
Fax: 46 + (0)90 - 786 66 93



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