SOSC 2350 Lecture Notes - Post-Structuralism, Costco

• School: York University
• Department: Social Science
• Course: SOSC 2350
• Professor: Tanja Juric

Document Summary

He is a post-structuralist: denial of the human being as the privileged object of philosophical analysis. Instead, the focus is on the unconscious determinants of thought (ex language) Foucault is very interested in discourse: what is the process through which discourse become privileged or de-privileged. Interested in how madness is constructed: argues it"s a social construction. Some discourses are elevated as truth, the way we see the world. In foucault"s view, nothing is fixed: idea that nothing is permanent, unchangeable in the structuring of the social or personal identity and practices: everything is social determined (ex the law) The subject is completely socialized: we just invent things: ways of doing, understanding. Nothing to prevent new ways of being, doing, etc: can keep reconstructing our world/identities. Ex, the way we punish: we"ve chosen this way, nothing natural or inevitable: just one way we"ve invented. This means we can invent other modes of justice.