Modern disciplinary knowledge
-people who have gone through such expect that they would have a language that's
comprehensible irrespective of where they come from
-the goal is to determine how we got to the point of assumption as well as an order of
knowledge
-universal: modern consciousness
-you're not only comprehensible to the ppl that have studied your discipline therefore
it is not that you read the same things
-there's a transformation in which we relate to the world that gives us a perspective to
the world irrespective of what you've studied and therefore assume that certain things
are a given (eg: you should be able to justify your actions)
-modern consciousness that appears universal and emerges organically and other
parts of the world it comes to us as part of the colonial composition
The modern meaning totality
-it's inclusive of everything thus everything assumes a new meaning and the idea of
being happy is tied given to us by the modern meaning totality
-Veblen
-this suggests that at a certain point in history, there emerges a person and once
anything goes through it, it acquires a specific type of meaning
-being a modern person is not just about going to school, having internet connection
etc
-there's a certain way of understanding which gives meaning to everything such that
once this meaning totality emerges, everything acquires a new meaning
-eg: what is happiness? We begin to think about being happy/sad in the same way
and everything about us become the same (emotions, feelings, responses etc)
-it's in the consciousness of ppl that states that they should respond in this similar
manner not the actual act
-success is an idea given to us by this modern meaning of totality bc it defines
everything and doesn't allow for freedom to think differently
-once you accept being modern you have to accept capitalism
-modern period=industrial period and this period is backed by power
,What are the origins of this concept?
-it emerges from the modern period bc this concept transformed everything
-in the pre-modern period ppl didn't think about the world like we do now
-the medieval period in Europe, the governing order is the church that's in charge of
society (theocracy) as well as the Divine Rulers who considered themselves to be
God's representatives on earth
-there was a way in which they related to the ppl they ruled as they had to look at them
and liken them to God's image
-the great chain of being: this tells us that in Europe during this time there was a
hierarchal organisational way of life which began at the top with 'God's representatives'
(man>animals/plants>objects)
-whatever was below man was available for use for man (applies to all other categories
too)
-everything that happened on earth was considered to be already contained in
scripture therefore one had no freedom to think differently or question concepts
(existential questions were forbidden= sacrilege\cosmic)
-Christendom (the only opinions that were permissible were those aligned to those
linked to God)
Cartesian revolution
-Religious reformation (would lead to the birth of protestants)
-Cartesian revolution (this movement is closely identified with Rene Descartes who is
a French philosopher)
*Descartes' object was to establish the basis for knowledge using radical
doubt/scepticism
-spiked by the enlightenment movement
*in order to do this he will begin doubting everything he knew before until he could get
to a specific thing he had no reason to doubt and would then build on that thing
(indubitable which means not available for doubt)
* the one thing he couldn't doubt was the fact that he was there thinking and there was
this entity called Descartes sitting there doubting (=I think therefore I am)
*this discovers that he's there thinking but the basis of his own thinking is the fact that
he's a thinking being (his evidence of existence was that he's a thinking being)
*Descartes then starts to establish men as the basis for thought and substitutes God
for men (he was Catholic) which therefore meant the hierarchy collapsed as it was
displaced
, *he goes so far to thinking if you're not a thinking being you're not a human being
*Archimedean point of knowledge (this becomes the basis of thinking about reason
and consciousness as universal)
*reason/consciousness/cogito ergo sum (concepts meaning the same thing/used
interchangeably)
*reason/capability to know everything is unencumbered as it's neither limited by time
or culture or space thus Descartes objective was to project reason as universal (once
you have reason you can explain everything)
*sits at the foundation of the modern meaning totality
-Descartes states that man is a thinking thing but also a rational animal, that man is
reason and that man is conscious
-Cartesian duality (Descartes believed the body is not him but called the body which
is an unthinking thing that links to emotion (res extensa) vs the mind which is the
intelligence (res congitians) and object vs subject which is the basis of your thinking
-the basis for existence was thinking in the earlier periods therefore he wasn't
dependent on his body to prove his existence (i possess a body in which i'm very
closely conjoined)
Man is reason
-to accept being modern is to accept a certain perspective (bob marley: to be educated
is to be a fool)
*to be human depended on whether you possessed reason or not
*the black lacked reason and therefore fell outside of the boundaries of reason
*reason became the basis for being included in a human being (but also became the
reason for coloniality and slavery)
*Europe thus justified slavery off the basis that black ppl were not human beings
*slavery was stopped bc it was morally unjustifiable to tell someone they're not a
human being
*the basis for colonialism was to teach black ppl how to be human and the problem w
this is that that goal is unachievable bc the day we become human is the day the
European entity collapses as the European entity's goal is to teach others how to be
human
*reason has implications bc it excludes black ppl from its category and justifies slavery
-people who have gone through such expect that they would have a language that's
comprehensible irrespective of where they come from
-the goal is to determine how we got to the point of assumption as well as an order of
knowledge
-universal: modern consciousness
-you're not only comprehensible to the ppl that have studied your discipline therefore
it is not that you read the same things
-there's a transformation in which we relate to the world that gives us a perspective to
the world irrespective of what you've studied and therefore assume that certain things
are a given (eg: you should be able to justify your actions)
-modern consciousness that appears universal and emerges organically and other
parts of the world it comes to us as part of the colonial composition
The modern meaning totality
-it's inclusive of everything thus everything assumes a new meaning and the idea of
being happy is tied given to us by the modern meaning totality
-Veblen
-this suggests that at a certain point in history, there emerges a person and once
anything goes through it, it acquires a specific type of meaning
-being a modern person is not just about going to school, having internet connection
etc
-there's a certain way of understanding which gives meaning to everything such that
once this meaning totality emerges, everything acquires a new meaning
-eg: what is happiness? We begin to think about being happy/sad in the same way
and everything about us become the same (emotions, feelings, responses etc)
-it's in the consciousness of ppl that states that they should respond in this similar
manner not the actual act
-success is an idea given to us by this modern meaning of totality bc it defines
everything and doesn't allow for freedom to think differently
-once you accept being modern you have to accept capitalism
-modern period=industrial period and this period is backed by power
,What are the origins of this concept?
-it emerges from the modern period bc this concept transformed everything
-in the pre-modern period ppl didn't think about the world like we do now
-the medieval period in Europe, the governing order is the church that's in charge of
society (theocracy) as well as the Divine Rulers who considered themselves to be
God's representatives on earth
-there was a way in which they related to the ppl they ruled as they had to look at them
and liken them to God's image
-the great chain of being: this tells us that in Europe during this time there was a
hierarchal organisational way of life which began at the top with 'God's representatives'
(man>animals/plants>objects)
-whatever was below man was available for use for man (applies to all other categories
too)
-everything that happened on earth was considered to be already contained in
scripture therefore one had no freedom to think differently or question concepts
(existential questions were forbidden= sacrilege\cosmic)
-Christendom (the only opinions that were permissible were those aligned to those
linked to God)
Cartesian revolution
-Religious reformation (would lead to the birth of protestants)
-Cartesian revolution (this movement is closely identified with Rene Descartes who is
a French philosopher)
*Descartes' object was to establish the basis for knowledge using radical
doubt/scepticism
-spiked by the enlightenment movement
*in order to do this he will begin doubting everything he knew before until he could get
to a specific thing he had no reason to doubt and would then build on that thing
(indubitable which means not available for doubt)
* the one thing he couldn't doubt was the fact that he was there thinking and there was
this entity called Descartes sitting there doubting (=I think therefore I am)
*this discovers that he's there thinking but the basis of his own thinking is the fact that
he's a thinking being (his evidence of existence was that he's a thinking being)
*Descartes then starts to establish men as the basis for thought and substitutes God
for men (he was Catholic) which therefore meant the hierarchy collapsed as it was
displaced
, *he goes so far to thinking if you're not a thinking being you're not a human being
*Archimedean point of knowledge (this becomes the basis of thinking about reason
and consciousness as universal)
*reason/consciousness/cogito ergo sum (concepts meaning the same thing/used
interchangeably)
*reason/capability to know everything is unencumbered as it's neither limited by time
or culture or space thus Descartes objective was to project reason as universal (once
you have reason you can explain everything)
*sits at the foundation of the modern meaning totality
-Descartes states that man is a thinking thing but also a rational animal, that man is
reason and that man is conscious
-Cartesian duality (Descartes believed the body is not him but called the body which
is an unthinking thing that links to emotion (res extensa) vs the mind which is the
intelligence (res congitians) and object vs subject which is the basis of your thinking
-the basis for existence was thinking in the earlier periods therefore he wasn't
dependent on his body to prove his existence (i possess a body in which i'm very
closely conjoined)
Man is reason
-to accept being modern is to accept a certain perspective (bob marley: to be educated
is to be a fool)
*to be human depended on whether you possessed reason or not
*the black lacked reason and therefore fell outside of the boundaries of reason
*reason became the basis for being included in a human being (but also became the
reason for coloniality and slavery)
*Europe thus justified slavery off the basis that black ppl were not human beings
*slavery was stopped bc it was morally unjustifiable to tell someone they're not a
human being
*the basis for colonialism was to teach black ppl how to be human and the problem w
this is that that goal is unachievable bc the day we become human is the day the
European entity collapses as the European entity's goal is to teach others how to be
human
*reason has implications bc it excludes black ppl from its category and justifies slavery
