Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 22:53:30 -0500
From: Ian Robert Douglas <Ian_Robert_Douglas-AT-Brown.edu>
Subject: RE: TRUTH


this is rather a difficult question, as in many ways the whole of
Foucault's endeavour is a discourse on truth.  As Paul Veyne recalls in one
of the most profound (in my view) essays written on Foucault ('The Final
Foucault and His Ethics', in Davidson _Foucault and his Interlocutors_),
"One night when we were talking about the truth of myth, he said that the
great question, according to Heidegger, was to know what was the ground of
truth; according to Wittgenstein, it was to know what one was saying when
one spoke the truth; 'but in my opinion,' he added--and I am quoting his
exact words, for I jotted them down--'the question is: how is it that there
is so little truth in truth?'"
  Beyond this incredible formulation, and the inaugural lecture Jenell
references you to, look at 'Truth and Power', in _Power/Knowledge_.  Also
important are the interviews 'The Concern for the Truth' and 'How much does
it cost to tell the truth?' in _Foucault Live_.  If after reading these
you're still unsure, read Nietzsche's _Human, All too Human_.  It will then
be as clear as daylight.

good luck,
____________________________________________
>>Please, can you give me an explanation of or a hint to the
>>Foucauldian concept of truth ...
>>Joerg

______________________________________________
Ian R. Douglas  |  Watson Institute of International Studies
Brown University, Box 1831, Providence, RI  02912  USA

tel: 401 863-2420     fax: 401 863-2192

"Only he who takes what he writes directly out of his
 own head is worth reading."  -  Schopenhauer

http://www.powerfoundation.org