Philosophy, history, psychology, sociology, medicine, gender studies, literary and cultural critique.
Power, self identity, epistemology, and the evolution of systems of thought and meaning.
Social construction and Human Nature
Structuralism An attempt to unify the human sciences by
applying a single methodology
Saussure and Levi-Strauss Breaking down language into precise units
and then interpreted objectively Interpretations relied upon very precise
definitions of concepts
No one text has meaning, rather it is a web of relations
Text is penetrated by outside forces “ever shifting, unstable, and open to
question”
Normal v. Abnormal Time based concepts We define normal through abnormal
Accounting for the individual through the development of science and the study of death
Episteme
What constitutes as acceptable?
Man becomes both object and subject of study
▪ The advent of human sciences
Human Nature▪ We can only see the world on our own terms
Challenges Sartre and Existential Freedom
▪ Meaning is not predetermined by outside forces, it is constructed by men – we make it up as we go
The Resistance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TDSLaDZ
HLo&feature=related
Everything is accounted for by the system.
Power acts through us Power is the texture of our lives, we live it
rather than have it, and we can not escape it.
Power-knowledge
A shift in understanding of power▪ Traditional power;
▪ Monolithic, hierarchical, clearly visible
▪ New notions:▪ Ensures by right, technique, normalization, control▪ More subtle than traditional roles, thus easier to
overlook and harder the resist
Scientia Sexualis and Ars Erotica The truth of sexual procedure versus the
erotic art, and the truth that is drawn from pleasure.
The invention of the homosexual