Replica: Distrust of objective knowledge is a slippery slope

It doesn't surprise that the europeans may have a prejudiced view of the Middle east. According to Tajfels social identitetsteori is our picture of the world simplified and based on stereotypes. More uncertain is whether the language in itself, represents a power structure. This idea with Michel Foucault inspired Said and reproduced by Stefan Jonsson in the following way ( DN 19/12): ”the knowledge of The other is also an exercise of power over The other. To break the pattern should be The other heard that kunskapsproducerande people. ”

That power relations are passed on by linguistic statements, that the one who is reading or listening takes on a given view of reality is not obvious. Foucault explains not how the ideas would affect people, because he – unlike social psychological theories of socialization and social interaction – does not explain the mechanisms that maintain a social reality.

Studies conducted in the USA shows that blacks who live among whites do not share their attitudes. Another example is Eastern europe, where people, after decades of ideological education was immune to communism. Rulers may use coercion to keep people in check, but not change their thinking.

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was prominent in the postmodern currents of thought that grew strong in the anglo-saxon literature research. The influence of French philosophy under the influence of Heidegger, as well as a cool interest for the social sciences, led to a ”literary” approach, where the reflection and criticism were often more important than systematic studies.

the Barrier against social science theory and methodology was reinforced by the institutional boundaries between the humanities, languages and civilisations. Instead of the fruitful syntheses we got an approach that was more interested in the ”reveal” and ”release” than to analyze the cultural processes.

An example is how mångfaldsstudier (via the author) sees ethnic minorities, women and disabled people as subordinate or oppressed. The task is to lift up and change their situation, which is nothing more than the open-ended study of ethnicity and other socio-cultural phenomena. Such a reduction is opåkallad, in particular if it is cutting itself off from what other disciplines have to say about human behavior.

Science's purpose is not to change the world. The task is to describe and analyze reality, a responsibility no one else takes on.

right, there would not be social movements. Dissonansteorier and the sociology of knowledge, however, provides explanations for how we react to power and domination. Those who are confronted with a colonial reality or the alien culture can affirm or reject it, but also create a synthesis. And so it happened in the Middle east, Russia and the Balkans from 1800 onwards. Against the ”westerners” was ”slavofiler” and the islamists. But even those who sought a middle ground.

the Particular in doubt is distrust of objective knowledge. We characterized the background and attitudes, but if the argument is carried too far becomes explanations impossible, or is replaced by elitism, and the politics of identity. A path out of the maze is to acknowledge the reality of complexity. At the side of the everyday reality are what William James called the ”multiple realities” and Alfred Schütz ”finite provinces of meaning”, defined meningssfärer (such as science, music, poetry, religion) which have their own logic or grammar, and is true when we experience the world through the respective ”languages”. In this sense, if certain premises are accepted, a lens of cultural and social research is possible and available to all, regardless of background.

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Science's purpose is not to change the world. The task is to describe and analyze reality, a responsibility no one else takes on. The research language is true on the basis of their regarding the arguments that follow, but not the whole truth. A meticulous critical study of how the Holocaust took place in Corfu is something other than the movie ”Shoahs ' depiction of Korfujudarnas fate, which, in turn, differ from the memory of those who was with. The various versions are true even if they can't be translated directly. At the same time, can we, as social beings, identify ourselves with the people and imagined what they had experienced.

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