Week 8 Seminar Notes

Seminar Outline
1. HOUSEKEEPING (17.30-17.45)

2. INDIVIDUAL RAT (17.45-18.00)

3. TEAM RAT (18.00-18.20)

4. CHALLENGES (18.20-18.25)

- ONLY IF REQUIRED

5. LECTURE INPUT - ISSUES FROM READINGS/RATs (18.25-19.00)

6. OUTLINE REFLECTIVE & TEAM PROJECT (19.10-19.30)

7. CONFIRM TEAM PROJECT QUESTION/STATEMENT (19.30-19.40)

8. 1st TEAM MEETING (19.40-20.20)

Philosophers, philosophers, philosophers!
NB - Only put short pieces of info here, just basic info on the thinker and their main ideas

Descartes

Kant

Nietzsche

Levinas

Colonialism

Some key quotes from the lecture:

- Colonialism is in essence about economic domination and political hegemony (Foucault 1980)

- The very structure of Western rationality is racist and imperialist (Derrida 1974).

- “For victims of colonialism, culture means strategies of survival as much as heritage, so that the gap between inherited or official meaning (ideology) and its individual performance provides room for resistance and individuation.” - Simon During (1999: 189) --Glendud 01:48, September 15, 2009 (UTC)

- Colonial discourse/education establishes a hierarchy of European adulthood versus childish.

Post Structuralism

Post-structuralism critiques Western rationality, domination and hegemony from within, especially the power-knowledge relationship, that excludes and exerts power over the Other by "making it known" (Cartesian Philosophy)

It is also classified by its disbelief of the "grand narrative" and rejection of absolute truth. The normative claims of rationalism are questioned. Post-structuralism sees the western rationalism and logic as a western construction that is hostile to the Other. Post-structuralism aims to know differently and knowing the difference of the Other, rather than to reduce or destroy it.

Post-structuralism further explores unquestioned western assumptions and tries to identify contradictions in western thinking.

Poststructuralism is the western critique of western civilisation. It dismatling western tradition from within.

Post-structuralism: a form of analysis, primarily in literary criticism, particularly associated with the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. It is often opposed to structuralism although Derrida saw his work as consistent with the real principles of structuralism. The fundamental idea is that we cannot apprehend reality without the intervention of language. This prioritizes the study of language-or texts. Texts can be understood only in relation to other texts, not in relation to an external reality against which they can be tested or measured. The principle of intertextuality holds that the meaning of a text is produced in reference to other texts.

Post-structuralism adopted the position of anti-humanism; that is, it criticized the residual humanism of social theory which privileged speech over writing. Radical versions of post-structuralism also argue that sociology is no longer feasible as a discipline, because it is based on outmoded notions of the social.

Derrida: Deconstruction: "strategy of critical analysis [...] directed towards exposing unquestioned metaphysical assumptions and internal contradictions in philosophical and literary language." ... works with questions of how texts should be read and interpreted --Glendud 01:48, September 15, 2009 (UTC)

Post-Colonialism

Post-Colonialism extends this western post-structuralist critique, as it interrogates the legacy of colonialism.It looks at texts of colonialised origin and of "colonialist" origin that deal with the experiences of colonialism.

Post-Colonialism is often mistakenly (!) understood as the time after colonialism, but rather it is actually a discourse and contention of colonialism. It identifies the close connection between capitalism and imperialism.

Post-Colonialism grants "the Other" the possibility of logic (in contrast to colonialism). According to Post-Colonialism the Study of Culture needs to provide accounts of the Other from within, "decentering", "writing from the margins", "critiquing the center" and "learning from the bottom up".

Critics of Post-Colonialism highlight the tendency to homogenize "the foreign" into an unproblematic theory of Other, thus becoming what is is critiquing. Further, Post-Colonialism is in danger of itself becoming a "grand narrative" or "theory", though it is rejecting an absolute truth/grand narrative. Thirdly it is critiques for writing in English the "Colonialist-tongue", this being limited in regards to the full scope of possibilities of linguistic cultural expression of "the Other".

Post-colonialism: From as early as the sixteenth century, several European countries greatly benefited their economies by forming colonies, dependent territories overseas, in the America, Australasia, Africa and Asia. Colonialism, which reached its height in the nineteenth century, was reversed in the second part of the twentieth century when colonies gained their independence. There is some disagreement, however, as to whether post-colonialism is any less exploitative than colonialism. Although there may not be as much direct intervention in the affairs of previously colonial countries, their economies are still dominated by the activities of large international companies based in the former colonial powers or the United States.

Post colonial theories try to search for non-violent and non-cohesive ways to explore i.e. it deals with problems of subjectivity, a new way of language where logic is accessible to all and not only limited as the property of west.

Some key quotes from the lecture:

- “... frequently misunderstood as a temporal concept meaning the time after colonialism has ceased ... Postcolonialism is, rather, an engagement with and contestation of colonialism's discourses, power structures, and social hierarchies... A theory of postcolonialism must, then, respond to more than the merely chronological construction of post-independence, and to more than just the discursive experience of imperialism” (Gilbert & Tompkins, 1996)

- Close connections between capitalism & imperialism: “capitalism spread from its original base in Europe, through trade and in alliance with political, cultural and economic imperialism. Wherever it went, capitalism came into conflict with traditional ways of life.” (McGuigan, 1999: 1) --Glendud 01:49, September 15, 2009 (UTC)

Glossary
concomitant 

adj.

Occurring or existing concurrently; attendant.

n.

One that occurs or exists concurrently with another.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com. “Thinking Otherwise…” Gandhi.

P 24 “…and to the concomitant globalization of capital”

vociferous 

adj.

Making, given to, or marked by noisy and vehement outcry.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com. “Thinking Otherwise…” Gandhi.

P 24 “…Ahmad…has been especially vociferous in his insistence…”

epistemology 

n.

The branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com. “Thinking Otherwise…” Gandhi.

P 26 “…implications of colonialism as an epistemological malaise…”