Re: same and the other

Ammar,

I have yet to read even as many Foucault works as I would have liked. I
definitely have not read "Power and Norm" but what I believe Foucault may
be attempting to signify within the space of this sentence is perhaps the
following.

One cannot help but wonder if Foucault, a man of "splendor and precision"
(Blanchot) did not believe in the concept of the same and the other, that
such a movement was one of the first and foremost, and perhaps even the
most profound, intentional fallacies that we can find in the history of
man. If we go back into history at the point, if it may be found at all
(and it would be interesting to ponder the very fact of proposing this
question), the moment when history violently destroyed pre-history, we may
be shocked to find that there very well may not be a concept of the other.
People of such an age, if they may be considered individuals outside
"technologies of the self", would have no sense of otherness; To ask them
the question "What is the other?" may have made as much sense as "What is
the same?"

----
I wish to continue and I'm sure that we will as this and other threads
displace and explode within the same of each other, but I'm now comfortable
with such an answer. And I am very glad you asked that because I may
perhaps have found part of the beginning of my 1st Foucault book, one that
I decided to write just a few days ago--yet up until now, I have only had a
fragmented outline.

I hope this helps.

Gary

At 11:42 PM 10/10/97 +0500, Ammar wrote:
>"a day will dawn when all the disparity(b/w Same and the Other)finds
>itself effaced.The power which will come to be exercised at the level of
>everyday life...will be made up of a fine,differentiated ,continuous
>network".Could anyone help me with this quote from "Power and Norm"
>where F. is discussing the relation of the Same and thhe Other?
>
>Ammar.
>
>
----------
Gary Yuen
gyuen@xxxxxxxx
B.A. Philosophy and B.A. Psychology (almost)
no need for a PhD. :)

"Do not ask who I am and do not ask me to remain the same."

- Michel Foucault

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