Larry Chapell wrote:
>Is this what Foucault is about? Metaphysical ultimates? We have to
>choose which sort of pre-Kantian we want to be? No thanks. Think I will
>decline.
I have always understood Foucault to be precisely about the non-existence
of "Metaphysical ultimates", that his project is to show how all such
ultimates are socially constructed through power discourses.
To make myself clear, when I wrote that you are either a materialist or
an idealist, I meant that you either believe that such metaphysical
ultimates (or extra material realities) exist or you do not believe they
exist. If I'm not mistaken, that is an immediate result of the law of the
excluded middle.
I admit my previous posting was over judgmental, and I hope Randall can
forgive my arrogant tone. I was in a bad mood. But I do think that
Foucault's project is part of a larger materialist project. And I think it
is futile to criticize Foucault from an idealist point of view, as (it
seems to me) Randall has been doing. The Materialist/Idealist debate is
an interesting one, but I'm not sure the Foucault list is the most
fitting place for it.
-- David W.
>Is this what Foucault is about? Metaphysical ultimates? We have to
>choose which sort of pre-Kantian we want to be? No thanks. Think I will
>decline.
I have always understood Foucault to be precisely about the non-existence
of "Metaphysical ultimates", that his project is to show how all such
ultimates are socially constructed through power discourses.
To make myself clear, when I wrote that you are either a materialist or
an idealist, I meant that you either believe that such metaphysical
ultimates (or extra material realities) exist or you do not believe they
exist. If I'm not mistaken, that is an immediate result of the law of the
excluded middle.
I admit my previous posting was over judgmental, and I hope Randall can
forgive my arrogant tone. I was in a bad mood. But I do think that
Foucault's project is part of a larger materialist project. And I think it
is futile to criticize Foucault from an idealist point of view, as (it
seems to me) Randall has been doing. The Materialist/Idealist debate is
an interesting one, but I'm not sure the Foucault list is the most
fitting place for it.
-- David W.