Read the full article which is published on Philosophy Bits (external link)Almost as soon as we notice something new, we start forming judgments about it. We can’t prevent this from happening because we are judgmental beings by nature. We automatically evaluate everything (and everyone) we encounter, which means we judge some things to be good and others to be bad.
Our judgments would not be a problem if we allowed them to arise and then depart, but we also have a tendency to become attached to them. We feel that because our judgments follow from the unique beings that we are, we must also identify with them. We end up limiting our understanding of both world and self because we have already judged their contents in one way or another.
The consequence of this is that we tend to become stuck with a very narrow way of seeing the world, a way that follows directly from the particular attachments we have formed. We build our identities around this narrow view, which in turn keeps us trapped in an endless and unnecessary battle with suffering.
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...
