Some contributions from my student colleagues, and readings, posted to this blog reflect aspects of our in-class discussions by problematizing the persistent influences of Cartesian dualism on the study of cognitive science. These and similar criticisms may be recognisable to those of you who are familiar with accounts from radical/ critical sociology and history that describe the epistemological leanings of ‘Enlightenment’ philosophy. I found a worthwhile example of such criticism in the work of the philosopher and historian Michel Foucault. I’d like to share Foucault’s ideas with you and then reflect on how they relate to my experience as a beginning student of cognitive science and novice researcher.
Foucault (2000) attributes an orientation in his work towards explorations of power to his analyses of ‘modes of objectification that transform human beings into subjects’ (p.326). Through these analyses Foucault (1984) traces the development of particular forms of inquiry, that were increasingly adopted by the human and social sciences in the early 20th century, to a ‘classical age’ (p.180) in Western philosophical thought between the 17th and 18th centuries.
