File spoon-archives/foucault.archive/foucault_1998/foucault.9807, message 210


Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 19:59:17 +1200
From: "na.devine" <na.devine-AT-auckland.ac.nz>
Subject: Re: ZT and govtality


Chad and all,

I wonder if Wynyard H's post doesn't suggest something useful about ZT.

I have it in my mind that there is an interesting piece in the biography 
of Canguilhem about the norm, in relation to sticklebacks.  (this 
thought is on the edge of my mind and won't clarify: you must bear with 
me).

I think the point is that the stickleback lives in clean water: if the 
water isn't clean, it doesn't just not thrive, it doesn't live, or at 
least not there.

This raises the question about norms among humans:we don't have such a 
clear indication of the 'norm': the norm is an evershifting mark, only 
indicated by the exclusion of some one or ones: 

So if we want to raise the norm we exclude more, i.e. we define more 
behaviours as being beyond the norm. ( With good scientific evidence) 
The romanticism of a idyllic age in the unspecified past makes this an 
easier process. 

( I knew I would get back to wynyard eventually) 

The unacceptable is absolutely intrinsic to the acceptable. 
Therefore ZT indicates a shift in norms, which may be easier to 
understand by looking at the etiology (is that the word? sounds like ER) 
of the desirable norm, rather than at the characteristics or rhetoric of 
the excluded. 

cheers,

nesta

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005