Week 8 RAT

Gandhi, “Thinking Otherwise”

1.Which is FALSE? Postcolonialism

is conceptually indebted to a variety of earlier 'Western' theories

has brought new prominence to matters of colony and empire

is concerned with cultural diversity


 * is named so because it follows colonialism in time

2.Poststructuralism

is the Western critique of Western civilisation, culture and epistemology; dismantling Western tradition from within


 * all are true

is incredulous (i.e. sceptical or disbelieving) towards grand narratives

argues that Western domination is a symptom of the unwholesome alliance between knowledge and power

3.Postcolonialism

is supportive of notions of universalism/Eurocentrism

all are true

none are true


 * aims to diagnose the material effects and implications of colonialism as a malaise at heart of Western rationality

4.Which is FALSE? According to Gandhi, humanism

is anthropocentric – it valorises or enthrones the human subject


 * none are false

argues that human-ness is bound up with questions of knowledge; presupposes a relationship between what a man is and what a man knows

argues that beneath underlying diversity is a universal human nature which is revealed through rationality

5.Poststructuralism/Postmodernism

argues that rationality is a historical construction

argues that any universal postulation is totalitarian and hostile to difference

tries to salvage the tentative philosophical indeterminacy of childhood (according to Lyotard)


 * all are true

6.Which is FALSE? On Kantian philosophy, the epitome of Enlightenment philosophy/humanism:

Kant’s notion of 'mankind' is criticised as prescriptive rather than descriptive; it restricts the universal to (adult) rationality

humanity is argued as a function of what man knows

the Enlightenment represents the exit from immaturity into the improved condition of maturity


 * attempts to historicise the contingency of what we are as humans and to liberate alterity (or difference)

7.Colonial discourse/education

establishes a hierarchy of European adulthood versus childish, colonised Other, implying that some humans are more human than others

feeds the logic of the 'civilising mission' and positions the coloniser as a disinterested educator


 * all are true

rationalises itself through rigid binary oppositions

8.Which is FALSE? Deconstruction/Poststructuralism

argues that Western philosophy begins and ends in violence


 * is a mixture of archaeology, filing and construction

excavates (the forgotten archives of) Western thought to reveal inadequacies, ruptures and paradoxes

discerns (through Derrida) the inevitable lack and persistent doubts of the aggressive, confident Self

9.Which is FALSE? Postmodernism/Poststructuralism criticises the Cartesian/Western conception of the Self because

identity is premised on the violent, aggressive omission or exclusion of the Other; indifferent to difference

it gives the Self the power to define and requires the repression or erasure of difference


 * none are false

it conceives of knowledge as the power over objective reality; mastery as the single motivation for knowing the world

10.Which is FALSE? Key aims of postcolonialism explores the following possibilities:

a relationship and dialogue with the Other

of knowing differently, of knowing difference (in and for itself)

a non-coercive and non-violent philosophy


 * favours a universal civic identity rather than particular cultural identity