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Clare,

thanks for the interview transcript. Crennan perspective is just a 'tad' 
self -serving.

I tend to think that the need for objective truth and certainty reflects a 
religious like impulse and a high degree
of personal fear. Could it have been otherwise given the influence of 
theology on modernist philosophers like Descartes and the Enlightenment 
thinkers? Certainly, sociologists like Durkheim and Weber thought so in 
terms of the dominant influences of modern life.Arguably, much of the 
modernist project is underpinned by theological values, attitudes and 
beliefs.

Scott Nicholas

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Clare O'Farrell" <c.ofarrell@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Mailing-list" <foucault-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 2:19 PM
Subject: Re: [Foucault-L] High Court of Australia judge Crennan on post 
modernism and the law


> I have to say I get a bit tired of reading this kind of simplistic
> rendition - which has become a widespread orthodoxy in some quarters
> - of Foucault's ideas on truth.
>
> Here is an interesting interview with Foucault which has just gone up
> online with some points of view which might shake this orthodoxy a
> little. This interview has previously been difficult to access
> http://www.vanderbilt.edu/historydept/michaelbess/Foucault%20Interview
>
> >  Foucault recounts this anecdote to draw attention to what he regards as 
> > the
> > arbitrariness of definitions framed to describe human behaviour, and the
> > contingent nature of meaning or truth. This point is repeated in many 
> > places
> > and under many guises throughout his oeuvre. He rejects our culture's long
> > tradition of belief in objective truths, and the law's use of reason to
> > establish truth, since 'truths' for him are fashioned by whatever is the
> > dominant group paradigm or discourse.
>
> --
> regards
> Clare
> ************************************************
> Clare  O'Farrell
> email: c.ofarrell@xxxxxxxxxx
> website: http://www.michel-foucault.com
> ************************************************
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