Thoughts and Action


For a long long time I've been reading rather than writing. Recharging my batteries. Restructing my mental background... Simply developing :)
I want to share a very impressive passage from Michel Foucault's last interview, conducted by Paul Rabinow in May 1984:
"...What distinguishes thought is that it is something quite different from the set of representations that underlies a certain behavior; it is also quite different from the domain of attitudes that can determine this behavior. Thought is not what inhabits a certain conduct and gives it its meaning; rather, it is what allows one to step back from this way of acting or reacting, to present it to oneself as an object of thought and to question it as to its meaning, its conditions, and its goals. Thought is freedom in relation to what one does, the motion by which one detaches from it, establishes it as an object, and reflects on it as a problem..."
The Turkish translation that is given in the book named Sıradışı Filozoflar (Philosophers Behaving Badly) by Nigel Rodgers & Mel Thompson is below:
"...Düşünce belirli bir davranış içinde yerleşmiş olup ona anlamını veren şey değildir; kişinin bu eylem ya da tespkisinden öncesine gidip onu kendisine bir düşünce nesnesi olarak sunmasına ve anlamı, koşulları ve hedefleri açısından sorgulamasına olanak tanıyan şeydir. Düşünce, kişinin yaptığı şey ile ilgili özgürlüğüdür, kişinin kendini ediminden ayırıp onu bir nesne haline getirmesini ve bir sorun olarak üzerine düşünmesini sağlayan devinimdir..."
 Don't you think it is a huge cognitive insight?

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