Hi Denys and others~
Denys's post really interested me (as do all posts on this topic).
It seems to tie back to Foucault's emphasis on local criticism. However,
Foucault doesn't seem to be saying "the world is a big bewildering place
full of diffuse operations of power and knowledge, so stick to the little
piece of the world you CAN understand" so much as he is warning us against
the effects of globalizing theories.
I think your epistemological approach is determined by the subject position
that you assign yourself as the author of your thesis. If you're writing in
order to struggle ("a theory is a regional system in this struggle"), then
what you're developing is a toolkit--not an almanac. On the other hand, if
you're writing in order to get it straight, then perhaps an objectified
reality isn't such a bad thing.
People like Kant get to do the easy work. When asked, "How should everyone
act," he gets to say simply, "In the way that everyone can act." That's nice
and all, but where does it get us? In a world in which everyone doesn't act
uniformly, theory really does have to work like a toolkit, ya know?
Its 3:40 AM so see ya :)
Nate
Denys's post really interested me (as do all posts on this topic).
It seems to tie back to Foucault's emphasis on local criticism. However,
Foucault doesn't seem to be saying "the world is a big bewildering place
full of diffuse operations of power and knowledge, so stick to the little
piece of the world you CAN understand" so much as he is warning us against
the effects of globalizing theories.
I think your epistemological approach is determined by the subject position
that you assign yourself as the author of your thesis. If you're writing in
order to struggle ("a theory is a regional system in this struggle"), then
what you're developing is a toolkit--not an almanac. On the other hand, if
you're writing in order to get it straight, then perhaps an objectified
reality isn't such a bad thing.
People like Kant get to do the easy work. When asked, "How should everyone
act," he gets to say simply, "In the way that everyone can act." That's nice
and all, but where does it get us? In a world in which everyone doesn't act
uniformly, theory really does have to work like a toolkit, ya know?
Its 3:40 AM so see ya :)
Nate