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joeri's review
4.0
The lectures collected and published in this book of Foucault offer interesting reflections on the question what Enlightenment and Critique might mean in our age. Focuault interestingly shows what the task of the philosopher can be when we try to define and position ourselves in the modern age. In this sense, Enlightenment and Critique always concerns how we ourselves are historically formed, and disciplined as subjects through the narrow interplay of knowledge and power. In increasing our selfknowledge in relation to this, we might find new possibilities of transgressing ourselves, find new possibilities of experience, and try to escape from certain forms of governance.
Foucault shows how philosophy offers help in this enterprise: "The game is to try to detect those things which have not yet been talked about, those things that, at the present time, introduce, show, give some more or less vague indications of the fragility of our system of thought, in our way of reflecting, in our practices." (p. 137).
Another beautiful quote also, in my view, reflects nicely on how philosophy can help us become more critical:
"Never consent to be completely comfortable with your own certainties. Never let them sleep, but never believe either that a new fact will be enough to reverse them. Never imagine that one can change them like arbitrary axioms. Remember that, in order to give them an indispensable mobility, one must see far, but also close-up and right around oneself. One must clearly feel that everything perceived is only evident when surrounded by a familiar and poorly known horizon, that each certitude is only sure because of the support offered by unexplored ground. The most fragile instant has roots. There is here a whole ethics of tireless evidence that does not exclude a rigorous economy of True and False, but is not reduced to it, either." (p. 127).
Foucault shows how philosophy offers help in this enterprise: "The game is to try to detect those things which have not yet been talked about, those things that, at the present time, introduce, show, give some more or less vague indications of the fragility of our system of thought, in our way of reflecting, in our practices." (p. 137).
Another beautiful quote also, in my view, reflects nicely on how philosophy can help us become more critical:
"Never consent to be completely comfortable with your own certainties. Never let them sleep, but never believe either that a new fact will be enough to reverse them. Never imagine that one can change them like arbitrary axioms. Remember that, in order to give them an indispensable mobility, one must see far, but also close-up and right around oneself. One must clearly feel that everything perceived is only evident when surrounded by a familiar and poorly known horizon, that each certitude is only sure because of the support offered by unexplored ground. The most fragile instant has roots. There is here a whole ethics of tireless evidence that does not exclude a rigorous economy of True and False, but is not reduced to it, either." (p. 127).
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