Week 1 - 14.02.22 / Enlightenment
Notion of Human Being
- 1800: emergence of idea of human being as an object we can study
Factors contribute to social/epistemic constellations: 1. Philosophy
- Kant
- Hegel
2. Rise of Bourgeoisie
3. Social institutions
- Print media
- Public sphere (debating)
- University (free thought)
Enlightenment
- Trust in powers of human reason to interpret the world
- Universal knowledge
- Knowledge: not transparent→ given
- Q: How is it possible ?
- Subject-object distinction
- Mind-world/mind-matter/mind-body
- Mind: capacity to gain knowledge about the world
Kant
- Epistemology: theory of knowledge
- Inquiry into conditions of possibility of knowledge → transcendental questioning
Empiricism (Hume)
- Knowledge based on experience
- Kant didn’t agree→ something being the cause of smth else
- We have concept
Positivism
- Legitimate scientific knowledge restricted to facts
- He believed in this → not based on experience
- Science→ differentiated from magic ecc 1800
A Priori statement
- Can be justifies
- Not based on experience or definition
Main Themes
1. Subject - object
- Object: known
- Subject→ knowing
- constructs and structures experience of the object
- Through forms of intuition/schemes
, - Rationalism: knowledge employs concepts that are given in advance of
experience (vs empiricism)
- Knowledge→ is universal: valis for all reasonable subjects
- Ethics and freedom are rational→ laws we rationally set
- Humanities→ present human being as simultaneously subject and object
- Object human being→ constituted through human subject
Contrast Lorde “Poetry is Not a Luxury”
- Different notion of freedom
- White EU rationality→ poetry’s integration of feeling and thought
- Mode of knowledge
- Freedom is different → Lorde
- Think abt feelings too
- Liberating freedom from whiteness
which circumstances it
- Black woman poetry→ awaken feeling that are at risk in system of profit
- Poetry→ brings together feeling and freedom
- I feel, therefore I can be free (38)
- Quality of light→ scrutinize life
- Not a luxury → vital necessity (pg 37)
- Where do we come from?
- Lorde: Colonialism→ people are seen as colonizers
- Protect understanding of difference
- Kant→ wrong for setting aside feelings
- Challenging universalism → rational being and emotional
- Harmonizing both into the subject
- EU philosophy → wanted to include black women
- Makes public sphere public
Hegel
1. Notion of spirit
- Individual consciousness in relation to others
- Dimension of individuality
- Social institutions→ objective kind of spirit (court, state)
- Collective consciousness (state of reflection in society)
- Spirit→ sole reality
- Developing process of dialectical development
- Movement from thesis to antithesis & synthesis
- Negation, sublation→ culminate in freedom and self
consciousness
- Distinction advanced-primitive people and nations
- Idea of freedom→ not in state of understanding if you’re antithesis or
synthesis
, 2. Historicity
- Continual development
- Saw EU in advanced society
- Africa: dark continent
3. Teleology
- Art and culture lead towards freedom
Foucault
- Episteme: large-scale conceptual framework for producing knowledge in distinctive
era
- 3 epistemes: 1600-1800
1800 +
- Historically variable principles and assumptions
1. 1600-1800: Classical Episteme
- Split between science and things
- Subject-object
- Representation-entity represented
- Distinctions bw signs and what they stand for
- Classical episteme→ ordering things
- Maps
- Taxonomies
- Think abt people in terms of social categories
- Comparative assessments
- Making knowledge→ episteme
2. 1800: Modern Episteme
- Conditions of possibility of knowledge→ Kant
- Interested in what makes knowledge possible
- Development of time→ progressively unfolding phenomenon
- Historicity of existence (Hegel)
- Episteme→ produce new objects of knowledge
- Significant to think abt human being: life, labor, language
- Studying human: subject tied to life, labor, language → HUMANITIES
- Language: completely transparent
Humanities
- Culture: feeling, vernacular paintings
- Cosmopolitanism, nationalisms, colonial expansion → civilization projects
- Humboldt + Schiller→ Bildung
- Self formation
- Education geared to actualization of human capacities
Ex: moral, epistemic, political, aesthetic
- University
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller smahd. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $5.42. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.