Friday, April 15, 2011

"Genius"

I was thinking about our talk the other day about the characteristics of "genius."

Name three people that you consider a genius. Are those people men?
It seems to me that we reserve the title of "genius" to a very narrow set of individuals.
And those very few individuals shape our world.
This sort of reminds me of Foucault's idea of the gaze of power.
For more information refer to: "The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences" by the man himself.
He looks like this:
Known by his contemporaries as:
"the only man in the history of the world that could successfully pair a turtle neck with a leather jacket"

Where do we look as a society?
What sort of knowledge do we consider worthy of attention?
What is "genius"?


1 comment:

  1. I think in terms of "genius" and who society might choose to look up to- we must depend on the historical and geographical context. Which is the most prominent nation? What intelligent persons might it produce or have already produced?

    It's difficult to really define "genius" without context. I'm not sure there's a real definition for genius without some kind of contextual setting, whether it be cultural, geographical, or historical.

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