My friend and mentor, Lorna Weir, has been quite busy as of late. Another one of her papers, “The Concept of Truth Regime” [pdf], appears in the current Canadian Journal of Sociology 33(2).
“Truth regime” is a much used but little theorized concept, with the Foucauldian literature presupposing that truth in modernity is uniformly scientific/quasi-scientific and enhances power. I argue that the forms of truth characteristic of our present are wider than Foucault recognized, their relations to power more various, and their historicity more complex. The truth regime of advanced modernity is characterized by multiple, irreducible truth formulae that co-exist and sometimes vie for dominance. A truth formula stabilizes a network of elements: a relation between representation and presentation (words and things), truth and non-truth, and the place of the subject in discourse. Our contemporary truth regime comprises radically heterogeneous truthful knowledges — science, governance, religion/politics, and common culture — that have distinct histories and relations to power.
Those following discussions of Canadian sociology on this blog may be interested in the review of James Côté and Anton L. Allahar’s Ivory Tower Blues and George Fallis’ Multiversities, Ideas, and Democracy [pdf] along with a response from the authors of Ivory Tower Blues [pdf].
3 Comments
“I argue that the forms of truth characteristic of our present are wider than Foucault recognized, their relations to power more various, and their historicity more complex.”
What a bizarre claim…
Why?
Scratch that. Not bizarre but typical. It’s another instance of the effects of the critical imperative that is all but pervasive throughout the humanities and especially the social sciences.
Don’t get me wrong: your friend’s paper is very interesting and very productive.
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