Michel Foucault

Why Postmoderns Train—Not Educate—Activists

At the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, my article “Why Postmoderns Train—Not Educate—Activists.” Teasers: Who said this? We cannot escape our ethnocentric predicament. We must, in practice, privilege our own group. And this? You don’t want to build up your opponent’s arguments; you want to squelch them. This? Renounce all philosophical speculation and […]

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A inferioridade moral do Pós-modernismo

[A translation into Portuguese (by Matheus Pacini) of my “Postmodernism’s Moral Low Ground”, first published in The Spectator (Australia).] Estamos lutando contra os pós-modernistas com uma mão amarrada nas costas? Batalhas intelectuais são a força vital de uma sociedade saudável. A vida é complicada e de alto risco, logo, pessoas racionais têm muito a debater. O

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Foucault as Nietzschean: on knowledge as injustice

Juxtaposing quotations from Michel Foucault (d. 1984) and Friedrich Nietzsche (d. 1900). First, here is Foucault: “All knowledge rests upon injustice; there is no right, not even in the act of knowing, to truth or a foundation for truth; and the instinct for knowledge is malicious (something murderous, opposed to the happiness of mankind).”[1] Friedrich

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Michel Foucault in *Explaining Postmodernism*

Michel Foucault said: “All my analyses are against the idea of universal necessities in human existence.” And philosopher Todd May summarizes Foucault’s conclusion this way: “It is meaningless to speak in the name of—or against—Reason, Truth, or Knowledge.” For more on Foucault’s contributions to postmodernism, see p. 11 of my Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism from Rousseau

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Political protest in a “post-fact era”

[Re-posted from TRI.] A protester was shot at the University of Washington during a clash between rival factions — one faction physically blocking an audience from hearing a speech, the other faction seeking to hear a rabble-rousing orator. The orator was Milo Yiannopoulos, a leading spokesman for the alt-right movement, a revitalized and muscularized version of nationalist

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Capitalism versus the Philosophers: An Interview with Stephen Hicks

This interview was published at FEE in abridged form as Capitalism versus the Philosophers: An Interview with Stephen Hicks. Abstract: A market-friendly philosopher takes on postmodernists, Ayn Rand, Michel Foucault, and Fifty Shades of Grey. Here is the unabridged version, which is also posted at interviewer Grégoire Canlorbe’s site. Interview with philosopher Stephen Hicks Hicks is

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Grégoire Canlorbe’s FEE interview with me

On Monday, May 2, the Foundation for Economic Education will publish an abridged version of Grégoire Canlorbe’s interview with me. Title: Capitalism versus the Philosophers: An Interview with Stephen Hicks. Abstract: A market-friendly philosopher takes on postmodernists, Ayn Rand, Michel Foucault, and Fifty Shades of Grey. I’ll post the link upon publication.

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Kostyło on postmodern dialectic of social care

A fascinating article by a Polish philosopher, Professor Piotr Kostyło of the University of Casimir the Great. (Courtesy of the publisher, here is a PDF of Kostyło’s article.) Kostyło notes that this generation of postmodern thinkers seems to have turned against state-provided welfare programs. The usual left-right debate over welfare is between those who argue

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