Post-Structuralism

Post-Structuralism

            Post-Structuralism is a late 20th Century movement in philosophy and literary criticism, which is difficult to summarize but which generally defines itself in its opposition to the popular Structuralism movement which preceded it in 1950s and 1960s France. It is closely related to Post-Modernism, although the two concepts are not synonymous.

            In the Post-Structuralist approach to textual analysis, the reader replaces the author as the primary subject of inquiry and, without a central fixation on the author, Post-Structuralists examine other sources for meaning (e.g., readers, cultural norms, other literature, etc), which are therefore never authoritative, and promise no consistency. A reader's culture and society, then, share at least an equal part in the interpretation of a piece to the cultural and social circumstances of the author.

Some of the key assumptions underlying Post-Structuralism include:

• The concept of "self" as a singular and coherent entity is a fictional construct, and an individual rather comprises conflicting tensions and knowledge claims (e.g. gender, class, profession, etc). The interpretation of meaning of a text is therefore dependent on a reader's own personal concept of self.
• An author's intended meaning (although the author's own identity as a stable "self" with a single, discernible "intent" is also a fictional construct) is secondary to the meaning that the reader perceives, and a literary text (or, indeed, any situation where a subject perceives a sign) has no single purpose, meaning or existence.
• It is necessary to utilize a variety of perspectives to create a multi-faceted interpretation of a text, even if these interpretations conflict with one another.

            Post-Structuralism emerged in France during the 1960s, a period of political turmoil, rebellion and disillusionment with traditional values, accompanied by a resurgence of interest in Feminism, Western Marxism, Phenomenology and Nihilism. Many prominent Post-Structuralists (generally labeled as such by others rather than by themselves), such as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and Roland Barthes (1915 - 1980), were initially Structuralists but later came to explicitly reject most of Structuralism's claims, particularly its notion of the fixity of the relationship between the signifier and the signified, but also the overall grandness of the theory, which seemed to promise everything and yet not quite to deliver.

            In his 1966 lecture "Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Science", Jacques Derrida (a key figure in the early Post-Structuralist movement, although he later founded the Deconstructionism movement), was one of the first to propose some theoretical limitations to Structuralism, and identified an apparent de-stabilizing or de-centering in intellectual life (referring to the displacement of the author of a text as having greatest effect on a text itself, in favor of the various readers of the text), which came to be known as Post-Structuralism.

            Roland Barthes (1915 - 1980), originally a confirmed Structuralist, published his “The Death of the Author” in 1968, in which he argued that any literary text has multiple meanings, and that the author was not the prime source of the work's semantic content. In his 1967 work "Elements of Semiology", he also advanced the concept of the metalanguage, a systematized way of talking about concepts like meaning and grammar beyond the constraints of traditional (first-order) language.

            Other notable Post-Structuralists include Gilles Deleuze (1925 - 1995), Julia Kristeva (1941 - ), Umberto Eco (1932 - 2016), Jean Baudrillard (1929 - 2007) and Judith Butler (1956 - ).

Post-Modernism

Post-Modernism

            Post-Modernism is a broad movement in late 20th Century philosophy and the arts, marked in general terms by an openness to meaning and authority from unexpected places, and a willingness to borrow unashamedly from previous movements or traditions. It is often defined negatively as a reaction or opposition to the equally ill-defined Modernism, although some claim that it represents a whole new paradigm in intellectual thought.

            The term "Post-Modernism" (literally "after Modernism") originated in architecture to denote a reactionary movement against the perceived blandness and hostility of the Modernist movement, and also against the pretensions of high Modernism, with its pursuit of an ideal perfection, harmony of form and function, and dismissal of frivolous ornamentation. It came to be used in art, music and literature (and, by analogy, in philosophy) for any pluralistic or reactionary style that is often more ornamental than Modernism, and which is not afraid to borrow from previous artistic styles, often in a playful or ironic fashion. It tends to lack a clear central hierarchy or organizing principle, although it often embodies extreme complexity, contradiction, ambiguity, diversity and inter-connectedness or inter-referentiality, and is typically marked by a revival of traditional elements and techniques.

            Some see Post-Modernism as just another phase in the continued unfolding of Modernism; some see it as a complete replacement for, and backlash against, Modernism. The burgeoning anti-establishment movements of the 1960s can be considered as the constituting event of Post-Modernism in a more general sense. With the current wide availability of the Internet, mobile phones, interactive television, etc, and the instantaneous, direct, shallow and often superficial participation in the culture they allow, some commentators have even posited that we are now entering the Post-Post-Modern period.

            In Philosophy specifically, Post-Modernism was heavily influenced by Continental Philosophy movements like Phenomenology, Structuralism and Existentialism, and it is generally skeptical of many of the values and bases of Analytic Philosophy. It is generally viewed as an openness to meaning and authority from unexpected places, so that the ultimate source of authority is the actual "play" of the discourse itself. It can be considered a "pick-and-mix" approach, whereby basic problems are approachable from a wide range of theoretical perspectives.

            Post-Modernism is a broad and non-specific movement (if it can be described as a movement at all), and movements like Deconstructionism and Post-Structuralism (among others) can both be considered Post-Modernist. Post-Modernists often defend themselves from criticisms of philosophical incompetence and excessive informality by claiming that they take a "wider" view of what philosophy is, that their use of academic jargon is necessary to communicate their ideas, and that their critics simply do not understand their work.

            Among the best-known Post-Modernist philosophers are Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean-François Lyotard (1924 - 1998), Richard Rorty (1931 - 2007), Jean Baudrillard (1929 - 2007) and Roland Barthes (1915 - 1980). Lyotard is perhaps one of the most identifiable Post-Modernists, and he has described Post-Modernism as a condition of the present state of culture, social structure and self. He is largely concerned with the role of narrative in human culture, and particularly how that role has changed as we have left modernity and entered a post-industrial or post-modern condition. Baudrillard has argued that we live in a "hyperreal", post-modern, post-industrial, post-everything sort of a world, and global reality has become dominated by an internationalized popular culture to such an extent that people have great difficulty deciding what is real.

Positivism

Positivism

            Positivism is a philosophical school developed by the French sociologist and philosopher Auguste Comte in the mid-19th Century.

            Comte believed that Metaphysics and theology should be replaced by a hierarchy of sciences, from mathematics at the base to sociology at the top. The school is based around the idea that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can only come from positive affirmation of theories through strict scientific method (techniques for investigating phenomena based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence, subject to specific principles of reasoning). For more details, see the section on the doctrine of Positivism.

            As a religious system, developed by Comte later in his life, Positivism denies the existence of a personal God and takes humanity ("the great being") as the object of its veneration and cult, and in this respect has similarities to Humanism. Comte developed a hierarchical priesthood, positive dogmas, an organized cult, and even a calendar on the model of Catholicism.

            After Comte's death in 1857, a division arose among the Positivists between the orthodox group under the direction of Pierre Laffitte (which maintained both the scientific and the religious teaching of Positivism) and a dissident group formed under Paul-Maximilien-Emile Littré (1801 - 1881). Orthodox groups (complete with its cult, sacraments, and ceremonies) were formed in England, Sweden, Brazil and Chile. For Littré, however, Positivism was essentially a method which limits human knowledge to the study of experimental facts, and neither affirms nor denies anything concerning what may exist outside of experience. Littré and his followers therefore rejected the religious organization and cult of Positivism.

            Although not a large movement in terms of individual contributors, its influence on subsequent philosophic thought was quite profound. The principles of Positivism as a philosophical system were accepted and applied in England by John Stuart Mill, a major figure in the Utilitarianism movement. Later, in the early 20th Century, it gave rise to the stricter and more radical movement of Logical Positivism.

Phenomenology

Phenomenology

            Phenomenology is a philosophical tradition or movement of the first half of the 20th Century, developed largely by the German philosophers Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, which is based on the premise that reality consists of objects and events ("phenomena") as they are perceived or understood in the human consciousness, and not of anything independent of human consciousness.

            It is the study of experience and how we experience. It studies structures of conscious experience as experienced from a subjective or first-person point of view, along with its "intentionality" (the way an experience is directed toward a certain object in the world). It then leads to analyses of conditions of the possibility of intentionality, conditions involving motor skills and habits, background social practices and, often, language. For more details, see the section on the doctrine of Phenomenology.

            As a branch of Philosophy of Mind, it has been central to the European Continental Philosophy tradition for most of the 20th Century. Many of its proponents, however, claim that it is related to, but quite distinct from, the other key disciplines in philosophy (Metaphysics, Epistemology, Logic and Ethics), and that it represents more a distinct way of looking at philosophy which has repercussions on all of these other fields.

            Phenomenology, as it is understood today, is essentially the vision of one man, Edmund Husserl, which he launched in his "Logical Investigations" of 1901, although credit should also be given to the pioneering work on intentionality (the notion that consciousness is always intentional or directed) by Husserl's teacher, the German philosopher and psychologist Franz Brentano (1838 - 1917) and his colleague, Carl Stumpf (1848 - 1936).

            Husserl formulated his classical Phenomenology first as a kind of "descriptive psychology" (sometimes referred to as Realist Phenomenology) and later as a transcendental and eidetic science of consciousness (Transcendental Phenomenology). In his "Ideas" of 1913, he established the key distinction between the act of consciousness ("noesis") and the phenomena at which it is directed (the "noemata"). In his later transcendental period, Husserl concentrated more on the ideal, essential structures of consciousness, and introduced the method of phenomenological reduction specifically to eliminate any hypothesis on the existence of external objects.

            Martin Heidegger criticized and expanded Husserl's phenomenological inquiry (particularly in his "Being and Time" of 1927) to encompass our understanding and experience of Being itself, and developed his original theory of "Dasein" (the non-dualistic human being, engaged in the world). Husserl charged Heidegger with raising the question of ontology but failing to answer it, but Heidegger's development of Existential Phenomenology greatly influenced the subsequent flowering of Existentialism in France.

            The movement split between the three main types of Phenomenology (Realist Phenomenology, Transcendental Phenomenology and Existential Phenomenology), each sub-branch having its own adherents. Husserl's early Realist Phenomenology was prefered by the Munich Group at the University of Munich in the early 20th Century, led by Johanes Daubert (1877 - 1947) and Adolf Reinach (1883 -1917), as well as Alexander Pfänder (1871 - 1941), Max Scheler (1874 - 1928), Roman Ingarden (1893 - 1970), Nicolai Hartmann (1882 - 1950) and Hans Köchler (1948 - ). Transcendental Phenomenologists include (in additon to Husserl himself) Oskar Becker (1889 - 1964), Aron Gurwitsch (1901 - 1973) and Alfred Schutz (1899 - 1959). Followers of Heidegger's Existential Phenomenology include Jean-Paul Sartre, Hannah Arendt (1906 - 1975), Emmanuel Levinas (1906 - 1995), Gabriel Marcel (1889 - 1973), Paul Ricoeur (1913 - 2005) and Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908 - 1961).

Ordinary Language Philosophy

Ordinary Language Philosophy

            Ordinary Language Philosophy (also known as Linguistic Philosophy or Natural Language Philosophy) is a 20th Century philosophical school that approaches traditional philosophical problems as rooted in misunderstandings philosophers develop by forgetting what words actually mean in a language, and taking them in abstraction and out of context.

            Some see Ordinary Language Philosophy as a complete break with, and a reaction against, the Analytic Philosophy movement it grew out of; others see it as just an extension of, or another stage of, the Analytic tradition. Either way, it became a dominant philosophic school between 1930 and 1970, and arguably remains an important force in present-day philosophy.

            Ordinary Language Analysis typically involves eschewing philosophical "theories" in favor of close attention to the details of the use of non-technical everyday "ordinary" language. Thus, it argues, the contemplation of language in its normal use, can "dissolve" the appearance of philosophical problems, rather than attempting to solve them. For more details, see the section on the doctrine of Ordinary Language Philosophy.

            Early Analytic Philosophy tended to dismiss language as being of little philosophical significance, and ordinary language as just being too confused to help solve metaphysical and epistemological problems. Analytic philosophers such as the young Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, W.V.O. Quine and Rudolf Carnap (1891 - 1970), all attempted to improve upon natural language using the resources of modern Logic, in an attempt to make it more unambiguous and to accurately represent the world, in order to better deal with the questions of philosophy ("ideal language" analysis).

            However, Wittgenstein's later unpublished work in the 1930's began to center around the idea that maybe there is nothing wrong with ordinary language as it stands, and that perhaps many traditional philosophical problems were only illusions brought on by misunderstandings about language and related subjects.

            Although heavily influenced by Wittgenstein and his students at Cambridge, Ordinary Language Philosophy largely flourished and developed at Oxford in the 1940s, under Gilbert Ryle, J. L. Austin (1911 - 1960), Peter Strawson (1919 - 2006), John Wisdom (1904 - 1993) and others, and was quite widespread for a time before declining rapidly in popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s.