After all, what would be the value of the passion for knowledge if it resulted only in a certain amount of knowledgeableness and not, in one way or another and to the extent possible, in the knower's straying afield of himself? There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all. People will say, perhaps, that these games with oneself would better be left backstage; or, at best, that they might properly form part of those preliminary exercises that are forgotten once they have served their purpose. But, then, what is philosophy today - philosophical activity, I mean - if it is not the critical work that thought brings to bear on itself? In what does it consist, if not in the endeavour to know how and to what extent it might be possible to think differently, instead of legitimating what is already known? There is always something ludicrous in philosophical discourse when it tries, from the outside, to dictate to others, to tell them where their truth is and how to find it, or when it works up a case against them in the language of naive positivity. But it is entitled to explore what might be changed, in its own thought, through the practice of a knowledge that is foreign to it.
If only I'd had a T-shirt with that on it in 1997, to ward off the reactionary history students in my college bar, who were endlessly lauded by the University authorities on account of their ability to name all 15 of Henry IV's French sisters-in-law. Bitter? Yes. Still? You bet.
Love it.
Posted by: Malte | May 01, 2012 at 12:15 PM
What size tee-shirts do you take?
Posted by: Dick Pountain | May 02, 2012 at 06:57 AM
I'm sure Philosophy Football will do you one...
Posted by: Kate | May 02, 2012 at 08:40 AM
Medium, Dick. But that quote might require XXXL.
Posted by: Will Davies | May 02, 2012 at 10:20 AM
'There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all.'
I think this part of the quote is the heart of it - and it would go on an XL t-shirt! I had this quote in the front of a notebook I kept about 20 years ago - lost or threw away the notebook and have never been able to find the quote again. My reading habits are pretty haphazard!
I think this side of Foucault shows the critical edge and relevance lurking in amongst the obscurities of post-structuralism - on which my friend Dick Pountain is so withering. It's through his website that I found this one.
Posted by: alan green | May 14, 2012 at 09:20 PM