Modernity and Ocularcentrism. A Second Look at Descartes and Heidegger ; Modernost in okularocentrizem. Ponoven pogled na Descartesa in Heideggra
The critique of ocularcentrism, the dominant tendency in Western (and perhaps not only Western) thinking to favour sight at the expense of other sense modalities, has recently come under attack from post-structuralist and post-phenomenological thinkers. The critique of ocularcentrism (documented in Martin Jay's work Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth-Century French Thought) is intended to reinforce and supplement the critique of logocentrism and the metaphysics of presence, in other words, it forms part of the critique of Enlightenment rationality. I argue that the critique of Enlightenment rationality frequently overshoots its target. Heidegger's critique of the »scopic« rationality of our culture has been invoked as a radical alternative to ocularcentric thinking. I attempt to show that Heidegger's critique of Enlightenment rationality and of modernity is not radically anti-essentialist and anti-foundationalist, as his followers maintain. I also try to show that Heidegger is at best a dubious ally in the fight against an oppressive »scopic« rationality because of the sinister political background of his critique of modernity. ; Kritika okularocentrizma, prevladujoče težnje privilegirati vid na račun drugih čutnih modalnosti v zahodnem (in morda ne le zahodnem) mišljenju, je pred nedavnim postala predmet napada poststrukturalističnih in postfenomenoloških mislecev. Kritika okularo-centrizma (ki jo je dokumentiral Martin Jay v knjigi Sklonjeni pogled: Zavračanje vida v francoski misli dvajsetega stoletja) naj bi okrepila in dopolnila kritiko logo-centrizma in metafizike navzočnosti. Povedano drugače, ta kritika tvori del kritike razsvetljenske racionalnosti. V članku zagovarjam mnenje, da kritika razsvetljenstva pogosto cilja višje kot pa leži njena tarča. Heideggrova kritika »skopične« racionalnosti naše kulture naj bi služila kot radikalna alternativa okularocentričnemu mišljenju. Pokazati skušam, da Heideggrova kritika razsvetljenske racionalnosti in modernosti ni radikalno antiesencialistična in antifundacionalistična, kot trdijo njegovi učenci. Pokazati tudi skušam, da je Heidegger, zaradi svoje problematične politične preteklosti in kritike modernosti, v najboljšem primeru dvomljiv zaveznik v boju proti zatiralski »skopični« racionalnosti.
