NOTES OF A MADMAN PHILOSOPHER:
1. State the 'grounding' problem of resistance.
2. Hold back before answering 1. Ask 3. instead:
3. Is there a 'true' subject at all?
4. Two possible responses to 3:
a. Heidegger/Zen Buddhism
b. Zizek's "authentic" act
HEIDEGGER AND ZEN BUDDHISM:
It's a mistake to dismiss Foucault as apolitical. His target is facism. People mistakenly believe he is apolitical due to the nature of his last two books. 'Care' of the Self is NOT 'knowledge' of the Self.
Heidegger posits the authentic Dasein against Descartes' inauthentic Ego. We must rid ourselves of illusion and reach the real Self. The ideas of the ancient Chinese philosopher Chuang-Tzu are particularly relevant here... Is Western philosophy too mechanistic and reductive to answer this question?
ZIZEK'S "AUTHENTIC" ACT:
For Zizek, political emancipation is not grounded in a stable subject. Quite the contrary, in fact: his "authentic" act involves a shattering of the very foundation of our being. The film "The Usual Suspects" is worthy of study here.
CONCLUSION:
What does Zizek's "authentic" act have to do with Foucault? Foucault does not want us to have knowledge of the Self. Yet his notion of the 'care' of the Self is an inadequate force against facism. Zizek has proposed something better.
1. State the 'grounding' problem of resistance.
2. Hold back before answering 1. Ask 3. instead:
3. Is there a 'true' subject at all?
4. Two possible responses to 3:
a. Heidegger/Zen Buddhism
b. Zizek's "authentic" act
HEIDEGGER AND ZEN BUDDHISM:
It's a mistake to dismiss Foucault as apolitical. His target is facism. People mistakenly believe he is apolitical due to the nature of his last two books. 'Care' of the Self is NOT 'knowledge' of the Self.
Heidegger posits the authentic Dasein against Descartes' inauthentic Ego. We must rid ourselves of illusion and reach the real Self. The ideas of the ancient Chinese philosopher Chuang-Tzu are particularly relevant here... Is Western philosophy too mechanistic and reductive to answer this question?
ZIZEK'S "AUTHENTIC" ACT:
For Zizek, political emancipation is not grounded in a stable subject. Quite the contrary, in fact: his "authentic" act involves a shattering of the very foundation of our being. The film "The Usual Suspects" is worthy of study here.
CONCLUSION:
What does Zizek's "authentic" act have to do with Foucault? Foucault does not want us to have knowledge of the Self. Yet his notion of the 'care' of the Self is an inadequate force against facism. Zizek has proposed something better.