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T H R E E Knowledge and the Languaging Body Psychoanalytic theory , postmodernism, an d feminism hav e one important feature i n common . The y eac h cal l int o questio n th e ver y natur e o f knowledge and inevitably lead us to question how we know what we think we know . Eac h require s u s a t som e poin t t o us e "th e instrumen t o f analysis t o analyz e th e instrumen t o f analysis"; 1 t o conceptualiz e th e process of conceptualization, to take cognizance of the process of cognition, to explain the process of explanation, to observe the process of observation, to becom e consciou s o f wha t i s consciousness , t o examin e th e realit y of reality an d the differentiations o f difference, an d to articulate within lan guage the question "wha t is language?" Psychoanalysis an d psychoanalytic socia l theory ar e the latter-day and contemporary culmination s o f a paradigmatic shif t i n worldview, a cognitive methodology tha t commence d wit h the pre-Socratics. I t is the evolution of the cognitive process by which Thales postulated that everything is made of water and has led us back from nature , that which is to be known, to the knowing of the knower. It s methodologies may appear idiosyncrati c when compare d t o the techniques o f the traditional sciences , but they are unorthodox becaus e o f th e cognitiv e difficultie s tha t ar e entaile d i n th e process of "knowing " the processes of cognition. Scienc e examines natur e whereas psychoanalysi s examine s th e examine r o f nature , and , i n th e process, not only does her or his body become an object of knowledge, but the psyche itself, th e human mind , becomes an object i n relationship to a piece of the mind tha t stil l stand s apar t a s the subject doin g the observa tion . Thi s process is consummated in the exploration of language. Psychoanalysis an d postmodernis m ar e abou t seein g th e individua l "seeing itself seein g itself" (F , 80). When we push back knowledge in this manner, w e eventually en d up at its very limits : th e dialectics o f differ 52 Knowledge and the Languaging Body ence, the arbitrarines s o f conceptualization , th e subjectivity o f experience , S3 the relativit y o f reality , th e ambiguit y o f certainty , th e contingenc y o f meaning, the restrictions of perception, the constraints of the neural orga nization o f th e brain , th e deficiencie s o f language , an d th e boundarie s o f consciousness. The limit s o f cognitio n ar e biological , neurological , psychological , an d linguistic. I f we had additional biological sensor y system s to interact wit h the externa l worl d o r i f ou r existin g sensor y system s woul d recor d o r identify a broader o r fine r se t o f externa l environmenta l change s o r phe nomena , such as our vision "perceiving " all frequencies o f the electromag netic spectrum rathe r than jus t the narrow band of light, we would live in a radically different "reality. " If the neurological structure of the brain was expanded in size and complexity, we would conceptualize and experience a different universe . I f al l o f th e i d becam e ego , o r i f al l aspect s o f th e processes of the psyche became conscious, we would be a different kin d of creature conceptualizing a very different kin d of world. Knowing is a perceptual even t taking place within a perceptual system . There i s no alternativ e t o no r wa y t o escap e from th e cognitiv e processe s by whic h w e perceiv e an d conceptualiz e th e object s o f knowledge . Th e observer is a biological system mad e up of a number o f subsystem s an d is inextricably linke d t o th e observed . An y ac t o f observatio n...

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