18/11/2015 - Seminar
Method - A way of doing. The path that you follow.
Methodology (Method-ology) - The knowledge of 'X' like Biology.
The first quote I encountered was "The genealogist examines the pre-conceived, and questions the phenomenon that 'we tend to feel is without history' ". At first, I didn't know what it meant but after that, some key words were highlighted like 'pre-conceived' which means an opinion formed before having any evidence of truth, 'question' and 'without history' which means something that is occurring and has no history like colours, I looked at the word 'phenomenon' aswell which means the object of a person's perception. So basically, what this quote is trying to say, I think, is that the genealogist examines an opinion that was formed before having any evidence to it and questions it. What I got from this quote is that there's people who make their own opinion about something like something in the past and they say this is right even though they were not there and it feels like it's my job to question it and explore the answer.
I came across another key word, 'fabrication', which means the process of inventing something like an opinion which relates to what I discussed before.
Subjective or Objective?..... Genealogies are subjective because it's based on someone's opinion and feelings. You are strongly 'present' in the study and objectivity does not allow involvement for the researcher.
Another quote that we talked about was "What right have (historians) to impose their tastes and references when they seek to determine what actually occurred in the past?", what I got from this is what right do historians have to give their opinions to whatever happened in the past when they did not witness it which leads to them fabricating different concepts which comes to a point that each person will have a different idea and will have different point of views which are false interpreted.
Genealogy claims that there is 'no eternal truth', eternal = lasting forever, always existing, truth = state of being true so it considers that eternal truth is always right so 'no eternal truth' means it's not right, it shouldn't last forever and it should be questioned.
Michel Foucault, who was a French philosopher, claims "the purpose of history, guided by genealogy, is not to discover the roots of our identity, but to commit itself to its dissipation".
-Root = eternal truth
-Dissipation = scattering and disregarding
-Identity = Foucalt's subject
What I got from this quote is that people ignore the root which is the truth, it's where it begins but instead, I think it means people will scatter the truth and make their own or believe the point of views of various people so committing ourselves to it and believing it.
We looked at how I could structure my essay by beginning to establish about setting the tone of the essay and telling the reader what my essay is going to be about which we were shown clips of how cartoons begin like The Simpsons and explained how they set the tone by setting the place where they live. After that, it's about setting the scene, tell the reader what is happening then analyse and unravel what has occurred which leads to me eventually, maybe, fabricating my own concept in response to it. Finally, I will analyse the new fabrication and write a conclusion to it by including my own opinion about it.
My conclusion..... At first, I did not understand completely what this Seminar was about and the purpose to it but as I thought about it, it relates to when I eventually write my essay, for example, when I find a piece of information, I should question it and I should find a range of the same information as every person has a different point of view to it so keep it mind that there's is no eternal truth to it and with the information, I should look at the whole picture of it.
