Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

III. Methods and tools
Lorde said you can’t dismantle the master’s
Audre
with the master’s tools. I think about this powerful
house
radicals, liberals, conservatives, and reactionaries,
By
in the masters’ knowledge is seen as
education
inevitably to consciousness of oppression and
leading
and so to the subversive desire for equality
exploitation,
justice. Liberals support and reactionaries oppose
and
free education, public schools, uncensored
universal
metaphor seems to say that education is
Lorde’s
to social change. If nothing the master
irrelevant
can be useful to the slave, then education in
used
masters’ knowledge must be abandoned. Thus an
the
must entirely reinvent society, achieve a
underclass
knowledge, in order to achieve justice. If they don’t,
new
is plausible. Revolutions generally fail. But I see their
This
beginning when the attempt to rebuild the house
failure
work of thinkers such as Linda Tuhiwai
The
and Ursula K. Le Guin draws our attention
Smith
how the tools and methods of producing
to
also have politics. These tools and
knowledge
used to describe and explain the world,
methods,
be used to liberate and empower, or to
can
and misrepresent. They are the products
oppress
the politics of their time. We explore this in
of
the link to find out more about Maria
Follow
“Balkanism”.
Todorova’s
terms: Westsplaining
Search
Balkans
the
(a) Who has the power to legitimize
1.
and who does not?
knowledge,
(a) What are some global currents in the
2.
of knowledge production?
politics
everybody can live in it becomes an attempt to grab
so
the saws and hammers, barricade Ole Massa’s tool-
all
and keep the others out. Power not only corrupts, it
room,
Work becomes destruction. Nothing is built.
addicts.
change with and without violence. Reinvention
Societies
possible. Building is possible. What tools have we to
is
with except hammers, nails, saws—education,
build
to think, learning skills?
learning
there indeed tools that have not been invented,
Are
we must invent in order to build the house we
which
our children to live in? Can we go on from what
want
know now, or does what we know now keep us from
we
what we need to know? To learn what people of
learning
the women, the poor, have to teach, to learn the
colour,
we need, must we unlearn all the knowledge
knowledge
the whites, the men, the powerful? Along with the
of
and phallocracy, must we throw away science
priesthood
democracy? Will we be left trying to build without
and
tools but our bare hands? The metaphor is rich and
any
I can’t answer the questions it raises.
dangerous.
Said draws attention to this in his book
Edward
Maria Todorova, writing in the
Orientalism.
of Western imaginations of the Balkans,
context
“Balkanism”. When these views are given
offers
they become internalized and hold
legitimacy,
not just to describe the world, but to shape
power
But can these same tools—concepts, theories,
it.
reclaimed as tools of liberation?
explanations—be
are the consequences of this for
What
knowledge about the Balkans?
creating
What steps can we take to use knowledge
3.
further social justice and engaged
to
Perhaps the most widespread act of
4.
is voting. What kinds of
citizenship
are useful and necessary in
knowledge
this political act?
performing
the next section, we look at the issues of
In
involved in deciding who to vote for.
knowledge
2
The master’s tools
metaphor, trying to understand it.
discussion at the universities for exactly the same reason.
the revolution will fail.
(Le Guin 2004)
depth in each chapter on the AOKs.
For reflection
(b)
Considering knowledge
citizenship?
Consider the following questions.
(b)
Where does this power come from?
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