/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.11935693]

So, his issue with science and scientism is that it objectifies humanity?

[Anonymous No.11935701]

>>11935693
We don't talk about "him" here.

[Anonymous No.11935714]

>>11935693
I haven't read enough Foucault to give a good opinion. But, I know that his theory of self-punishment and monitoring in the criminal justice system is great in the fields of Psychology and criminology. So, even though he downed the sciences, he also has contributed to them.

[Anonymous No.11935734]

No, what? Where did you get this idea? He doesn't have a problem with science "as such", he just says that the scientific method is a mode of discourse among many instead of the single way of determining truth. He believes society changes through epistemic shifts, i.e. times when the basic assumptions about what is true and how truth is determined change drastically, usually as a result of technological innovations, new trade routes, cultural interactions, etc. So he would see enlightenment period Europe as having undergone an epistemic shift from the epistem of Christendom to the epistem of the Academy and the Lab, in which truth is no longer determined by holy men in touch with God but by scientists and academics "in touch" with reason.

Foucault's philosophy is really pretty amoralistic, he certainly doesn't think there's any inherent dignity to human life outside of what dignity we project on ourselves and others, a projection that is aligned to a system of discourses.

Here's a good starting point if you're actually interested in reading Foucault:

Nietzsche, Genealogy, History
PDFhttps://noehernandezcortez.files.wordpress.com ...

[Anonymous No.11935750]

>>11935734
When I read breakdowns like this I realize Foucault's ideas are actually kind of interesting, but whenever I read him, I get irritated by his overwritten, melodramatic style.

Why does he feel the need to phrase everything like that? Is it just because he's trying to be like Nietzsche?

[Anonymous No.11935765]

>>11935750
Probably, yeah. It seems like he considered himself a poet as much as a philosopher and his essays literary stunts as much as sober analysis. Sometimes I appreciate it, other times it's annoying and masturbatory. It's been a while since I was new to Foucault but IIRC Nietzsche, Geneology, History is a pretty straightforward essay and lays out his project as more of a continuation of Nietzsche than most people expect.

[Anonymous No.11935775]

>>11935750
It was French academia in the 60s and 70s. You had to be there man

[Anonymous No.11935789]

>>11935693
Objectifies? I think it's something like that, I would use the word limiting too. The type of thought that came around the enlightenment removed the infinitudes with finitudes.

[Anonymous No.11935795]

>>11935750
It's because the post-war French were weird. I agree it's annoying and that's why I mostly stick to the secondary lit.

[Anonymous No.11935798]

Happy birthday Michel and Nietzsche