[lbo-talk] internally riven

[Miles Jackson]

Chris Doss wrote:
> 
> I don't think it's really so much paranoid as solipsistic. You've got
> this system operating everywhere, determining everything, and
> operating independently of anything according to its internal rules.
> Sure there's differance and power and all that (in
> post-structuralism), but really they serve the function of a
> noumenon. Like I said this may be true on some deep metaphysical
> level, but I don't think it works all that well for societies --
> which are not actually structured like languages.

This is an apt illustration of the disciplinary silos in academe.  The 
notion that there are social structures that operate independently of 
any individual is a fundamental idea covered in any Soc 101 class.  In 
this respect, Foucault's work is almost banal sociology.  It fascinates 
me that a fundamental principle in one academic discipline is construed 
by someone trained in another discipline as outrageous solipsism.

Miles