Abstract
A partial translation of Michel Foucault's Hermeneutics of the Subject is
presented in this paper along with an introduction to its background, place in
Foucault's intellectual journey, its importance and implications. The author
identifies the difference between philosophy and spirituality in terms of whether
or not personal transformation of the knower is considered a condition for
access to truth. He maintains that the history of Western thought up to the
Medieval debates between theology and mysticism always believed that the
human subject has no intrinsic access to knowledge of truth and must go
through a number of spiritual and moral exercises and transform himself or
herself before being able to gain knowledge in the light of the ubiquitous maxim
"Take care of yourself." Western thinking posterior to the 'Cartesian Moment',
(not to be taken literally) stared emphasizing another maxim namely "Know
thyself" and presumed that human subject already has intuitive access to the
truth and does not have to make any changes in his or her being. Foucault thinks
that this was the moment when the ties between philosophy and spirituality were
severed in Modern thought. In his introduction the translator argues that
Foucault's works should be seen as an answer to a question raised by Professor
Thomas Kasulis. Kasulis, in his 1998 book Intimacy or Integrity, differentiated
between two cultural orientations regarding the internal and external nature of
relations and has shown that a given culture's metaphysics, epistemology, logic,
ethics, politics and art depend on its fundamental orientation. The integrity
oriented epistemology conceives the knower-known relationship as external
while the intimacy oriented epistemology considers knower internally related to
the object of knowledge. After implying that Classical Western and Eastern
epistemologies are intimacy oriented and modern Western ones are integrity
oriented, Kasulis asked, can we consider post-modern epistemology a return to
earlier intimacy orientation? The translator argues that Foucault's work
translated here can be considered an affirmative answer to this question.
Dr. Qaisar Shahazad. (2018) Philosophy and Spiritualism: Michael Foucault, Mayar , Volume 19-20 , Issue 2 .
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