Clare,
thanks for the interview transcript. Crennan perspective is just a 'tad' self -serving.
I tend to think that the need for objective truth and certainty reflects a religious like impulse and a high degree
of personal fear. Could it have been otherwise given the influence of theology on modernist philosophers like Descartes and the Enlightenment thinkers? Certainly, sociologists like Durkheim and Weber thought so in terms of the dominant influences of modern life.Arguably, much of the modernist project is underpinned by theological values, attitudes and beliefs.
Scott Nicholas
----- Original Message ----- From: "Clare O'Farrell" <c.ofarrell@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Mailing-list" <foucault-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 2:19 PM
Subject: Re: [Foucault-L] High Court of Australia judge Crennan on post modernism and the law
thanks for the interview transcript. Crennan perspective is just a 'tad' self -serving.
I tend to think that the need for objective truth and certainty reflects a religious like impulse and a high degree
of personal fear. Could it have been otherwise given the influence of theology on modernist philosophers like Descartes and the Enlightenment thinkers? Certainly, sociologists like Durkheim and Weber thought so in terms of the dominant influences of modern life.Arguably, much of the modernist project is underpinned by theological values, attitudes and beliefs.
Scott Nicholas
----- Original Message ----- From: "Clare O'Farrell" <c.ofarrell@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Mailing-list" <foucault-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 2:19 PM
Subject: Re: [Foucault-L] High Court of Australia judge Crennan on post modernism and the law
I have to say I get a bit tired of reading this kind of simplistic
rendition - which has become a widespread orthodoxy in some quarters
- of Foucault's ideas on truth.
Here is an interesting interview with Foucault which has just gone up
online with some points of view which might shake this orthodoxy a
little. This interview has previously been difficult to access
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/historydept/michaelbess/Foucault%20Interview
Foucault recounts this anecdote to draw attention to what he regards as the
arbitrariness of definitions framed to describe human behaviour, and the
contingent nature of meaning or truth. This point is repeated in many places
and under many guises throughout his oeuvre. He rejects our culture's long
tradition of belief in objective truths, and the law's use of reason to
establish truth, since 'truths' for him are fashioned by whatever is the
dominant group paradigm or discourse.
--
regards
Clare
************************************************
Clare O'Farrell
email: c.ofarrell@xxxxxxxxxx
website: http://www.michel-foucault.com
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