“A critique does not consist in saying that things aren't good the way they are. It consists in seeing on just what type of assumptions, of familiar notions, of established and unexamined ways of thinking the accepted practices are based... To do criticism is to make harder those acts which are now too easy.”
Explore This Quote Further
Critique as Uncovering Assumptions
"A critique does not consist in saying that things aren't good the way they are. It consists in seeing on just what type of assumptions, of familiar notions, of established and unexamined ways of thinking the accepted practices are based... To do criticism is to make harder those acts which are now too easy." - Michel Foucault
Quote Analysis
In this quote, Michel Foucault emphasizes the importance of critique not simply as a means of pointing out flaws or inadequacies, but as a way of uncovering and questioning the underlying assumptions and beliefs that shape accepted practices. Rather than dismissing things as "not good," critiquing involves examining the foundations on which these practices are built. By challenging the status quo and delving into the core beliefs that support it, criticism forces us to confront the ease with which we accept certain ideas and behaviors without questioning their validity. This quote highlights the disruptive and transformative power of critical thinking and analysis.
The Importance of Critique in Challenging Established Practices
Michel Foucault's words remind us of the necessity of critical thinking in analyzing and questioning the underlying assumptions of accepted practices. In today's constantly evolving society, it is crucial to not simply accept things as they are, but to actively engage in critique to challenge and improve existing systems and beliefs. By questioning the status quo and examining the foundations of our actions, we can strive to make informed and meaningful changes that push us towards progress and societal betterment.
Reflection Questions:
As Michel Foucault suggests, criticism involves looking beyond the surface and questioning the underlying assumptions and beliefs that inform our accepted practices. It challenges us to reexamine our ways of thinking and to make the familiar more difficult by bringing it into question. Consider the following reflection questions to deepen your understanding of the assumptions that underlie your beliefs and actions:
- What are the assumptions and familiar notions that inform the practices or beliefs being criticized?
- How do these assumptions shape our understanding of the world and influence our actions?
- In what ways do these established ways of thinking make certain actions or practices easier or more acceptable?
- How might questioning these assumptions lead to a deeper understanding of the issues at hand and potentially open up new possibilities for change?
- What steps can be taken to challenge these established ways of thinking and make criticism a constructive force for positive change?
Similar quotes
“Thus, seeking to produce a typology of forms of the art of government, La Mothe Le Vayer, in a text from the following century (consisting of educational writings intended for the French Dauphin), says that there are three fundamental types of government, each of which relates to a particular science or discipline: the art of self-government, connected with morality; the art of properly governing a family, which belongs to economy; and finally the science of ruling the state, which concerns politics. What matters, notwithstanding this typology, is that the art of government is always characterized by the essential continuity of one type with the other, and of second type with the third.”
“The work of an intellectual is not to mould the political will of others; it is, through the analyses that he does in his own field, to re-examine evidence and assumptions, to shake up habitual ways of working and thinking, to dissipate conventional familiarities, to re-evaluate rules and institutions and to participate in the formation of a political will (where he has his role as citizen to play).”
“The necessity of reform mustn’t be allowed to become a form of blackmail serving to limit, reduce, or halt the exercise of criticism. Under no circumstances should one pay attention to those who tell one: “Don’t criticize, since you’re not capable of carrying out a reform.” That’s ministerial cabinet talk. Critique doesn’t have to be the premise of a deduction that concludes, “this, then, is what needs to be done.” It should be an instrument for those for who fight, those who resist and refuse what is. Its use should be in processes of conflict and confrontation, essays in refusal. It doesn’t have to lay down the law for the law. It isn’t a stage in a programming. It is a challenge directed to what is.”
“A way of life can be shared among individuals of different ages, status, and social activity. It can yield intense relations not resembling those that are institutionalized. It seems to me that a way of life can yield a culture and an ethics. To be "gay," I think, is not to identify with the psychological traits and the visible masks of the homosexual but to try and define and develop a way of life.”
“In actual fact. The manifold sexualities - those which appear with the different ages (sexualities of the infant or the child), those which become fixated on particular tastes or practices (the sexuality of the invert, the gerontophile, the fetishist), those which, in a diffuse manner, invest relationships (the sexuality of doctor and patient, teacher and student, psychiatrist and mental patient), those which haunt spaces (the sexuality of the home, the school, the prison)- all form the correlate of exact procedures of power.”
“Are you going to change yet again, shift your position according to the questions that are put to you, and say that the objections are not really directed at the place from which you are speaking? Are you going to declare yet again that you have never been what you have been reproached with being? Are you already preparing the way out that will enable you in your next book to spring up somewhere else and declare as you're now doing: no, no, I'm not where you are lying in wait for me, but over here, laughing at you?' 'What, do you imagine that I would take so much trouble and so much pleasure in writing, do you think that I would keep so persistently to my task, if I were not preparing – with a rather shaky hand – a labyrinth into which I can venture, into which I can move my discourse... in which I can lose myself and appear at last to eyes that I will never have to meet again. I am no doubt not the only one who writes in order to have no face. Do not ask who I am and do not ask me to remain the same: leave it to our bureaucrats and our police to see that our papers are in order. At least spare us their morality when we write.”