Suchergebnisse

An interview concerned marginally with poststructuralism but more often with Michel Foucault's views on French intellectual history since WWII. Topics discussed include: Nietzsche, Marxism in conjunction with other schools of thought, Foucault's books, & the notion of postmodernism. Structuralism is interpreted as merely one aspect of a broader twentieth-century tendency toward formal thinking. The interrelation between phenomenology & structuralism is briefly noted, & it is suggested that the major intellectual currents of the 1960s occurred as a result of dissatisfaction with the phenomenological theory of the subject. Foucault's own central problematic is revealed to be the problem of wahr-sagen (saying the truth), & the attempt of the subject to speak the truth about itself. The history of reason & rationality is pondered, & the recent history of the French Left is considered. The question of the continued validity of the Marxist paradigm is posed, & it is noted that French thought after WWII involved repeated attempts to integrate Marxism with other philosophical positions, including phenomenology, psychoanalysis, structuralism, & Nietzschean theories. J. Weber.

Insofar as structuralism does not reduce to an amorphous interest in exploring social patterns, it must adopt an ontology of structures. This ontology distinguishes structuralism from other approaches offering structural descriptions of social phenomena. In light of this difference in approach, the idea of a social structure is defined & defended. In Structuralism and Ontology , Bruce H. Mayhew (U of South Carolina, Columbia) points out that questions of ontology are irrelevant to the sciences -- including the social sciences -- for the simple reason that they proceed on the assumption of hypothetical realism. Structuralism in the social sciences includes a wider array of perspectives than those discussed by Grafstein, who appears to be discussing a particular variety of French structuralism -- a tradition that has very serious problems. In The Search for Social Structure, Robert Grafstein defends his attempt to link ontology & structuralism against taxonomic, philosophical, & social scientific objections. The positive case for pursuing structural ontology is reaffirmed. Modified HA.