Hi peter, your post reminded me of a passage
(re-produced below) I recall reading in Foucaults
early work on 'Mental illness and Psychology' which
spoke of the problem posed by a system of education
which presents children a picture of the adult world
which is, like its ideal conception (myth), free from
its real complications and conflicts, which paints a
false picture of its coherence and unity (obviously
for pedagogic purposes), thus deepening the conflict
between theworld of children (protected from) the
world of adults (which they come into conflict with).
"When, with Rousseau and Pestallozzi, the eighteenth
century concerned itself with constituting for the
child, with educational rules that followed his
devolpment, a world that would be adapted to him, it
made it possible to form around children an unreal,
abstract, archaic environment that had no relation to
the adult world. The whole development of contemporary
education, with its irreproachable aim of preserving
the child from adult conflicts, accentuates the
distance that separates, for a man, his life as a
child and his life as an adult. Tht is to say, by
sparing the child conflicts, it exposes him to a major
conflict, to the contradiction between his cihldhood
and his real life. If one adds that, in its
educational institutions, a culture does not project
its reality directly, with all its conflicts and
contradictions, but that it reflects it indirectly
through the myths that excuse it, justify it, and
idealize it in a chimerical coherence; if one adds
that in its education a society dreams of its golden
age.. one understands that fixations and pathalogical
regressions are possible [as a 'normal line of its
cultivated development] only in a given culture..."
The contexture in which this passage is embedded
concerns the Freudian formulation of Neuroses as the
retreat into childhood away from adult conflicts, and
the very project of history to integrate the past and
present, inscribe the one in the other.
Freud, in his Civilization and its discontents, offers
some comments which no doubt orientated Foucault here:
"education is behaving as though one were to equip
people starting on a Polar expedition with summer
clothing and maps of the Italian Lakes." To bring this
discussion back to the question of ethics, even if
only obliquely, I shall let Freud's text speak: "In
this it becomes evident that a certain misuse is being
made of ethical demands. The strictness of those
demands would not do so much harm if education were to
say: 'This is how men ought to be... ; but you have to
reckon on their not being like that.' Instead of this
the young are made to believe that everyone else
fulfills those ethical edmands- that is, that everyone
else is virtuous." I said 'obliquely'...
"I wont my books to be a kind of 'tool box'..."
> > --- peter@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> >
> > > Dear Foucault List,
> > >
> > > I have been asked to pick out some readings on
> > > Foucault's ethical
> > > positions and to give a mini-presentation for a
> > > seminar that I am a part
> > > of - Ethics in Development (in Archaeology and
> > > Anthropology). I thought
> > > that I would suggest the following readings:
> > >
> > >
> > > On the Genealogy of Ethics: an overview of work
> in
> > > progress
> > >
> > > Preface to The History of Sexuality Volume Two
> > >
> > > Kant?s What is Enlightenment
> > >
> > > Foucault?s What is Enlightenment
> > >
> > > The Ethics of the Concern of Self as a Practice
> of
> > > Freedom
> > >
> > >
> > > But more importantly, I need to find more of a
> > > textbook-style explanation
> > > of Foucault's ethics that distill his various
> > > positions into a cohesive
> > > whole (I don't mean a system but rather
> something
> > as
> > > all-inclusive of his
> > > various positions as possible) for
> undergraduates
> > > who have no history
> > > reading him. In other words, a sophisticated
> > > synopsis....
> > >
> > > Do you know of anything I could use for this? A
> > > chapter out of a book, an
> > > article, whatever...
> > >
> > > Also, if you have other suggestions for primary
> > > source pieces that are
> > > more essential to read I would love your input.
> > > Thanks a lot for your
> > > help!
> > >
> > > Sincerely,
> > >
> > > Peter Mancina
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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>
>
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>
National Bingo Night. Play along for the chance to win $10,000 every week. Download your gamecard now at Yahoo!7 TV. http://au.blogs.yahoo.com/national-bingo-night/