Deck 29: Postmodernism: Derrida, Foucault, and Rorty

Question 1

This is not an example of a philosopher in quest of presence:

A) The Socratic lover experiencing the wondrous vision of Beauty itself
B) Heidegger seeking the meaning of Being
C) Derrida deconstructing a text
D) Descartes searching for something so clear and distinct that it cannot be doubted

Answer 1

Derrida deconstructing a text

Question 2

Derrida holds, with Saussure, that language is a system of differences. This means that

A) a word gets its meaning by virtue of its differences from other words.
B) the word "cat" gets its meaning by referring uniquely to a specific cat different from any other.
C) words are anchored securely to the world they are about by being different from it.
D) every language is different from any other.

Answer 2

a word gets its meaning by virtue of its differences from other words.

Question 3

Logocentrism, as Derrida understands it,

A) means that we are too centered on ourselves, on our "logo."
B) is what the Western philosophical tradition was led away from by Plato and Aristotle, and to which we need to return.
C) distracts us from the central philosophical task of unveiling presence.
D) is the privileging of reason as a certain avenue to truth.

Answer 3

is the privileging of reason as a certain avenue to truth.

Question 4

Derrida calls a word a "trace" because

A) it traces the essential nature of its object.
B) what determines its identity is largely absent from an occasion of its use.
C) we can trace every word back to its origins in antiquity.
D) like the traces that allow a horse to pull the cart, words "pull" thoughts in their train.

Question 5

Speaking is not more in touch with reality than writing, according to Derrida, because

A) Writing, too, can reveal presence.
B) Writing disseminates the truth to so many readers over the centuries.
C) speaking has all the characteristics that have made philosophers think that writing is secondary to speech.
D) in writing, too, our intention guides our words to their target.

Question 6

A metanarrative is

A) a story about the Greek god meta.
B) an overarching theory of reality.
C) a false story.
D) a narrative about narratives.

Question 7

Foucault understands an episteme to be

A) an empiricist epistemological theory.
B) an epistle.
C) what every philosophy holds to be true.
D) what defines the possible in the way of knowledge and action.

Question 8

Archaeology, as practiced by Foucault

A) searches out historical antecedents of our present cultural practices.
B) excavates ancient sites to find their cultural icons.
C) is what archaeology courses teach at universities.
D) has nothing to do with the past.

Question 9

In doing genealogy, Foucault aims to discover

A) who his ancestors were, and how they contributed to their era.
B) what produces the shifts from one episteme to another.
C) the differences among cultures.
D) the origins of modern science.

Question 10

Foucault says that the soul

A) is an illusion.
B) is more real than the body.
C) is an effect of operations on the body.
D) is no more than a religious invention of priests, intent on control.

Question 11

The techniques of discipline aim at

A) normalization.
B) equalization.
C) creating the exceptional individual.
D) upholding eternal moral standards.

Question 12

A carceral society is

A) one very different from our own.
B) created by those incarcerated in prisons.
C) what we've got.
D) a meat-eating society.

Question 13

To "de-divinize the world," in Rorty's terms, would be to

A) respect the essential needs of the self rather than the will of God.
B) take science rather than religion as revealing the true nature of things.
C) think of human beings, rather than anything independent of them, as divine.
D) dispel the idea that there is anything independent of us humans to which we must be responsible.

Question 14

For Rorty, contingency means that

A) time and chance rule everything.
B) our vocabulary depends on (is contingent on) the nature of the world we live in.
C) cruelty is the worst thing we do.
D) everything is contingent on everything else.

Question 15

Truth, according to Rorty,

A) both is and should be our goal in inquiry.
B) must be clearly distinguished from justification.
C) is a compliment we pay to certain beliefs.
D) is the correspondence with reality that comes at the end of an ideal inquiry.

Question 16

An ironist, according to Rorty,

A) tends toward sarcasm and cynicism.
B) thinks that other vocabularies than her own might be the ones truly in touch with reality.
C) realizes that anything can be made to look good or bad by being redescribed.
D) will be a liberal in politics.

Question 17

With regard to the essential natures of things, Rorty says that

A) they are and must remain unknown.
B) there are no such things.
C) science will ultimately reveal what they are.
D) their character is entirely relative to the essential nature of human beings.

Question 18

Morality, according to Rorty, is

A) a recognition that in fact cruelty is the worst thing we do.
B) the voice of the deepest part of the self.
C) the sort of thing we don't do.
D) treating everyone equally and giving equal opportunity to all.

Question 19

What is logocentrism and what is Derrida's criticism of it?

Question 20

How does Derrida deconstruct the binary opposition speech/writing?

Question 21

Relate to each other the notions of différance, trace, and dissemination.

Question 22

What is the connection, in Foucault's thought, between archaeology and an episteme?

Question 23

How is Foucault's "genealogy" related to his "archaeology"?

Question 24

What is a carceral society?

Question 25

Why does Rorty think that truth cannot be a goal? What does he propose as a substitute?

Question 26

What is the connection, according to Rorty, between contingency and irony?

Question 27

What does Rorty mean by substituting hope for knowledge?

Question 28

Is science just another ideology, or is there something unique about it in regard to discovering the truth about the world we live in? Evaluate the arguments offered by the postmodernists on this question.

Question 29

Is our society rightly described as a carceral society?

Question 30

Is irony the appropriate attitude toward our own vocabulary and convictions? If so, can we consistently believe, as Rorty thinks we can, that our attitudes and convictions are better than some others?