Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id LAA02809 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 16 May 2001 11:16:27 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745E95@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Information Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 11:11:14 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
<May I throw in Bourdieu's idea:
> "Dès qu'on traite le langage comme un objet autonome, [...] on se condamne
> à
> chercher le pouvoir des mots dans les mots, c'est-à-dire là où il n'est
> pas:
> [...]. Ce n'est que par exception [...] que les échanges symboliques se
> réduisent à des rapports de pure communication et que le contenu
> informatif
> du message épuise le contenu de la communication. Le pouvoir des paroles
> n'est autre chose que le pouvoir délégué du porte-parole: et ses paroles
> [...] sont tout au plus un témoignage ... de la garantie de délégation
> dont
> il est investi. [...] l'autorité advient au langage du dehors...
> [Pierre Bourdieu, Ce Que Parler veut dire, p 103-5]
>
> I shan't insult you by translating! I find my students find Bourdieu less
> clear in translation to English, than in the French, perhaps that is
> generally true.>
>
Only for those who speak French....
<His idea is that language and power are intimately and
> inevitably connected. I would add that we know what we mean, once we have
> said it: and further, that statements like:
>
> "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
> that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights,
> that
> amongst these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness [...]
> that governments are instituted among men, which derive their just power
> from the consent of the governed..."
>
> are true, but not so; they become true when enunciated (who would
> contradict
> the above?) and are enabled to become so once said. As for Bourdieu's
> discours d'autorité, the solution he advances to our incredible, and
> dangerous, tendency to believe 'authoritative" discourse, is to generate
> what he calls discours hérétique, which will act upon the real by acting
> upon representations of the real.>
>
Truth is a slippery concept, after all that declaration was made by
slave-owning men, who didn't consider either slaves or women to be part of
their truths...
Vincent
===============================This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed May 16 2001 - 11:20:18 BST