We began by refreshing the material we covered last term, and offering some questions we had for the current reading:
I.
Refresher
on The Order of Discourse
a.
Theme
of exclusions
b.
Where
are we picking up?
i. F’s turn to practices.
II.
Questions
a.
What
is the significance of Foucault’s distinction between savoir and connaissance as
he introduces these terms in these lectures?
b.
Is
the will to know in modernity for an “animal”-kind of knowing, since it is
concerned with means, and is ancient knowledge of a higher form, since it is
concerned only with ends?
c.
How
does the will to truth exercise itself “on other discourses” as well as “on…other practices” that are
external to discourse?
d.
What
does Foucault mean by his definitions of savoir
and connaissance as given on pg.
17?
e.
Is
Foucault setting up a causal relationship between desire and knowledge in his
first lecture?
We then turned to further discussion:
III.
Discussion
a.
Distinction
between savoir/connaissance
i. Definition her provides on pg. 17
seems less like a elucidation of the terms themselves, than with their
relationship with desire.
ii. In Aristotle’s connaissance, desire and knowledge are “co-natural”, they are part
of the same process. Foucault’s savoir, by contrast, is the pulling of
desire out from knowledge, showing that we have a will to produce knowledge.
b.
Question
of Aristotle’s elision of instrumentality from knowledge.
i. Foucault seems to be arguing that,
from Aristotle on, the notion that knowledge can be non-utilitarian – or
sufficient unto itself – covers over some pre-existing will or desire to know, or to know in order to do or be something.
c.
To
what extent are the observations Foucault outlines in this lecture needed
and/or useful?
i. Are Foucault’s observations here
merely preliminary notes on his later work on power/knowledge, or is he
advancing something new and interesting here?
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