Read the full article which is published on Philosophy Bits (external link)Many of the texts you encounter seem to do nothing other than make an argument for a particular conclusion. The conclusion is supposed to follow from the premises according to the usual rules of logic. As you read, you determine whether or not the machinery of logic successfully leads to the conclusion. The value of such a text then seems to be coextensive with its logical success or failure.
But it is always possible that even the most logical text is also about something else. This is not the conclusion named in the text but something revealed through the process of reading openly. Here, the text is not just a logical argument but a pretext to some further possibility. It is a call to notice a particular insight, an idea that drives the text itself. And it is this driving force that you might also discover can drive you.
Poststructuralism as a Regime of Truth: Foucault and the Paradox of Philosophical Authority
Foucault’s critique of power and knowledge shaped poststructuralism, yet its rejection of truth risks becoming its own orthodoxy. To remain...
