Re: Foucault's Eurocentrism

Arne Raeithel (raeithel who-is-at informatik.uni-hamburg.de)
Wed, 24 Apr 1996 19:06:58 +0200

Oh, yes, indeed, Phillip:

>... to get an understanding about
>institutional cruelty [...] we had best look at our own institutions [!]

However, this would mean for you and Jay to look at North American
schools, and their various roots, some of them in Europe, some not.
There certainly are present-day scholars (like Foucault was one)
who are looking at their own European institutions, and the roots
of them -- surely outside Europe at some point ("Eve came out of
Africa at about 150,000 b.C.").

For me, sitting over here on a sunny evening, "European" is either
an empty catch-all for the sins of the enlightening and industriali-
zation, or it sounds like someone from abroad wanting to define how
we here should construe our past.

The above may read much sharper than I mean it. I just reckon that
this should be visibly on the desk...

Smiling: Arne.