Ana,
Thanks for those thoughts. I'm sure that Foucault would say it doesn't
matter whether he read Illich or not, but then he always was against people
writing/thinking about his intellectual trajectory, preferring for them to
write genealogies themselves. I don't agree with this - I think that lots of
bad Foucauldian studies have been written (along with some good ones), at
least partly because his ideas have been misunderstood. One of the ways I
think to improve this is to know his work better. Hence my thesis on
Heidegger's influence on Foucault, and hence (more minor) this question
about Illich.
Thanks again - anyone else something to add?
Best wishes
Stuart
-----Original Message-----
From: Anaspinoza <anaspinoza@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sunday, January 10, 1999 22:50
Subject: Foucault and Illich
Stuart said:
does anyone out there know
>of any links between Foucault and Ivan Illich?
>
>I've had a friend trying to convince me (unsuccessfully) that Foucault must
>have read and been influenced by Illich, as their ideas were so similar. >
Ana says:
There are several common ideas between Foucault and Illich. Foucault would
say: it doesn´t matter if I read or not the books of Illich; the important
thing is to know why in the middle of this centuary some modern ideas
related to education are being criticised. The analisys that Foucault makes
about the exam as the way in which discourses take place in disciplinarys
societies has a lot of consequences in education. Nevertheless, he
legintimated exams in universities (in an intervieuw) with poor arguments.
Both, foucault and Illich, from my point of view, rejected education as
extortion (that is, in the form that catholisism gave to education, as an
intermediate step that conducts us to paradise -certificates- or to
hell -not having a certificate-)
Bye
Ana
Thanks for those thoughts. I'm sure that Foucault would say it doesn't
matter whether he read Illich or not, but then he always was against people
writing/thinking about his intellectual trajectory, preferring for them to
write genealogies themselves. I don't agree with this - I think that lots of
bad Foucauldian studies have been written (along with some good ones), at
least partly because his ideas have been misunderstood. One of the ways I
think to improve this is to know his work better. Hence my thesis on
Heidegger's influence on Foucault, and hence (more minor) this question
about Illich.
Thanks again - anyone else something to add?
Best wishes
Stuart
-----Original Message-----
From: Anaspinoza <anaspinoza@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sunday, January 10, 1999 22:50
Subject: Foucault and Illich
Stuart said:
does anyone out there know
>of any links between Foucault and Ivan Illich?
>
>I've had a friend trying to convince me (unsuccessfully) that Foucault must
>have read and been influenced by Illich, as their ideas were so similar. >
Ana says:
There are several common ideas between Foucault and Illich. Foucault would
say: it doesn´t matter if I read or not the books of Illich; the important
thing is to know why in the middle of this centuary some modern ideas
related to education are being criticised. The analisys that Foucault makes
about the exam as the way in which discourses take place in disciplinarys
societies has a lot of consequences in education. Nevertheless, he
legintimated exams in universities (in an intervieuw) with poor arguments.
Both, foucault and Illich, from my point of view, rejected education as
extortion (that is, in the form that catholisism gave to education, as an
intermediate step that conducts us to paradise -certificates- or to
hell -not having a certificate-)
Bye
Ana