Tutorial week 2 Flashcards
What is Enlightenment according
to Kant?
Enlightenment is man’s release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage s man’s
inability to make use of his understanding without direction from another. Self
incurred is this tutelage when its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of
resolution and courage to use it without direction from another
What is the difference between private and public reason?
Private vs public use of reason: private in function, public for yourself
Link Kant and Habermas
Use of reason in the public sphere
Why does Foucault start with Kant’s text?
Because Kant marks the start of Enlightenment era, and start of modernity thinking, which want answer to this question:
Kant “[…] is not seeking to understand the present on the basis of a
totality or of a future achievement. He is looking for a difference:
What difference does today introduce with respect to
yesterday?”
Question marks difference from old present conceptions, what are they?
The present:
i. As belonging to a distinct world-era, possessing inherent traits.
ii. As an omen for the future.
iii.As a transition point for a new world.
How does Foucault understand Kant’s ‘use of reason’?
collective vs individual use of reason, collective is society as a whole achieving enlightenment, individual is public vs private
Why is critique necessary for enlightenment according to foucault?
“Kant describes Enlightenment as the moment when humanity
is going to put its own reason to use, without subjecting itself to any
authority;
critique is necessary, since its role is that of defining the conditions under which
the use of reason is legitimate
What is the critique according to Foucault?
“today” as difference in history and as
motive for a particular philosophical task
Characteristics of modernity (foucault)
- Discontinuity of time: breuk heden en verleden
- Imagining present otherwise
- Compelling tot he task of producing himself: making present otherwise
- Role of art is important, mainly for 2 (Baudelaire)
Modernity as a philosophical ethos - negative characterization
- Blackmail: The idea that we need to be in favour of, or against, the enlightenment is a false
dichotomy. Also known as the ‘blackmail of enlightenment’ - Humanism: is not the same as enlightenment, does not have same critical attitude as enlightenment, looks less at man in context
Modernity as a philosophical ethos - positive characterization
o Limit attitude: seek limits of reason, seek transgression from there
o Experimental methodology: archaeological (method) and geological (design)
Incomplete project of modernity, 4 stakes
i. stakes: development of capabilities dissociated from the intensification of
power relations.
* ii. homogeneity: analysis of practices of rationality (the technological aspect) and
freedom (the strategic aspect).
* iii. systematicity: addressing systematically questions of knowledge and power,
thus ethical questions.
* iv. generality: although our experiences are material and specific, they also recur
(crime, insanity, sickness).
When does subjectivity become subjection? (Love)
the human is at once subject (autonomous
rational) and object (heterogenous-thing-like). The humanist project aims to make the
self-as-subject master of the self-as-object.
Foucault critiques this: Foucault argues that subjectivity is never separate from subjection, because someone makes you a subject, via subjugation you also make yourself a subject
Habermas believes this is seperable, human remains critical: As culture becomes more rationalized, people become more reflective and critical of their own cultural assumptions (reflexivity). This critical stance discourages them from treating cultural beliefs as absolute or fixed truths (inhibiting objectivation).
Conforms to “communicatively
achieved understandings” not to “normatively ascribed agreements, so still possible for individuals to shape their cultural environments
When does communication become confession? (Love)
Foucault: Truth in entwined with disciplinary power in scientific and confessional discourse. In
confession, we submit our true desires for examination and evaluation to determine
whether they are true, whether they conform to accepted and/or acceptable
norms.’
Habermas: Habermas believes that rational, coercion-free communication can help people arrive at truths that are not just expressions of power but rather are grounded in mutual understanding and reason, which is necessary for democracy.
Habermas critique on Foucault’s truth-conception
In essence, Habermas accuses Foucault of inconsistency. He argues that Foucault’s position—that truth is always a function of power—undermines Foucault’s own project if it is also subject to the same power dynamics.
