John Patrick wrote:
> Does anyone "know" what the words for "power" and "knowledge" are in French?
This question comes at a good time for me: for something I'm writing, I've been
trying to think of
nice examples of how different languages can organize reality for us in
different ways.
[suggestions are most welcome]
Moving away from the <noun> knowledge for a moment: the fact that French has 2
verbs with
which to translate "to know" is quite striking [connaitre, savoir]. Foucault,
among others, uses the
corresponding nouns [connaissance, savoir] in quite different ways, with
different evaluative
inflections.
[I'm not sure if he is consistent in this usage... I'm not sure if he is
consistent in anything!]
[Now, to move into the area of idle speculation] I accept Ali's point that
etymology will only
take us so far. But I wonder about the effects of the resonances of our words.
As has been
pointed out, "pouvoir" [which is, I believe, the only word ever used in
French-language politics
for "power], is also a verb, "to be able to."
Does that make it easier for a thinker in French to escape from the "negative"
view of power?
In English, on the other hand, "to power" is, I believe, only a transitive
verb. Does that make it
easier for the Anglo-American political scientist to think of power as "A making
B" do
something?
Phil