Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id QAA03644 (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 16:08:54 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745E99@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Bourdieu and meaning Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 16:03:38 +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
Goebbels once said 'whoever speaks the first word to the world is always
right'.
The credibility of the French philosophical establishment has been hit hard
by the critiques of Sokal & Bricmont. They seem to remain rather...
evidence free in their arguments, at least in their pronouncements beyond
purely philosophical concerns, where the notion of evidence is a different
kettle of poisson entirely.
Bourdieu's ideas are always interesting, his lectures on TV and journalism
feature in the courses I teach, but I can't pretend I'm not suspicious
regarding the empirical validity of a lot of his work.
Vincent
> ----------
> From: Ryan, Angela
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2001 2:31 pm
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: Bourdieu and meaning
>
> <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....
>
> OK I'll try to transliterate (with apologies, because I think Bourdieu
> changes meaning when translated):
> "If we treat language as an autonomous object, [...] we condemn ourselves
> to
> finding the power of words in the words, that is, where it is not [...]
> Only
> exceptionally does symbolic exchange [symbol-exchange] consist solely of a
> purely communicative interrelation, or the informative content of the
> message co-equal the whole content of the communication. The power of
> words
> is none other than the power delegated to the speaker: and his/her words
> [..] are at most an evidence [witness statement] ... of the delegation
> warranty he/she bears. [...] authority invests language from outside [it]"
> Bourdieu's book is very well translated into English, by the way, as
> Language and Symbolic Power (ed J Thompson). I feel that the difference
> between French and Anglophone philosophical mindsets, and the nature of
> philosophy, does mean an inevitable shift in meanings.
> As for the American Declaration: it does indeed, paradoxically, state a
> belief which the locators did not implement, which was not so and still is
> not; this is an example of Bourdieu's point, whereby the belief invested
> in
> that beautiful assertion makes it true, and being so accepted, it becomes
> the basis by which later generations may have worked and may work upon its
> becoming (if incompletely) the case.
>
> Yours sincerely
> Angela
>
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For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
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