In The Prison
Notebooks, Antonio Gramsci talks about the themes of political change and unity
of pop culture, but adds the idea of Philosophy and common sense, and how Philosophy
and culture relate to politics. The author explains that philosophy is a
unified sense of what is good, which is different from religion or common sense
because it is “intellectual order” which comes from a large event involving
many people in agreement, not just one person or philosopher. Similarly to
popular culture, the author talks about how popular philosophy is rooted in
lived experiences, which requires people to know themselves and that they are a
product of many things over time. The theme of philosophy effecting or controlling
the moral of people is also similar to what we have covered about mass culture.
Gramsci emphasizes that political development and high philosophical advancement
are connected, but I am wondering how he would differ pop culture and philosophy,
because this is also true of popular culture. I am also questioning what “political
development” is referring to, and if this talking about how a large group of
people changes their politics over time or if it is referring to the
development of how people treat politics in general.
In Truth and Power,
Michel Foucault talks about truth, and how it surrounds the themes of politics,
power, and people. He emphasizes the importance of a “new politics of truth”
which I think is attempting get rid of the stigma of truth only being for the
few hippy-like optimists. Rather the author relates truth to “social
confrontation” or struggle, which is a returning theme from the other texts we
have read. Foucault also mentions that truth should be represented by a
singular person from a specific group, but this singular person should be an
example of the masses, so I’m confused truth is determined by both one person
and general society.
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