Undergraduate Honors Thesis
The Intellectual Destroyer: Michel Foucault and The Iranian Revolution 公开 Deposited
https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/7m01bm355
- Abstract
- Interpretations of Michel Foucault’s writings on the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79 tend toward three basic stances. The critical-explanatory approach argues that an infantile leftistism set Foucault up for an uncritical approval of a backward and premodern Isalmist regime. The interpretive-neutral position refrains from value judgments preferring instead to view Foucault’s reportages as valuable insofar as they reveal lesser-known aspects of his work. Finally, Foucault’s defenders interpret the Iran writings as his movement toward humanism and liberalism, a reorientation, they argue, that ought to absolve Foucault from guilt in the case of Iran. In this paper I survey the existing positions on the reportages and ultimately deliver an alternate explanation. Grounded in the sociology of knowledge, I argue that the case of Foucault and Iran is best understood as Foucault maintaining a sense of biographical coherence in the production of knowledge. Using a theory of intellectual self-concept, I show that three identity traits: the anti-prophetic philosopher; the philosopher of the present; and infatuation with the theme of the revolution drove Foucault toward the Iranian events, and colored his interpretations of it.
- Creator
- Date Awarded
- 2015-01-01
- Academic Affiliation
- Advisor
- Committee Member
- Granting Institution
- Subject
- 最新修改
- 2019-12-02
- Resource Type
- 权利声明
- Language
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缩略图 | 标题 | 上传日期 | 公开度 | 行动 |
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theIntellectualDestroyerMichelFoucaultAndTheIranianRevol.pdf | 2019-11-19 | 公开 | 下载 |