And then, everything changed.
We saw the beginnings of Enlightenment criticism the past two weeks in Nietzsche (Gott ist tot) and Rauschenbusch. But here’s where we tip over the edge into a completely different era, a completely different way of thinking that is counter to the universals proposed in the Enlightenment.
Of course, none of this is linear or universal. To say we’re in a post-modern era is to pretend all of us, all 8 billion of us, are responding to the Western Enlightenment in a particular way, which is just not true.
Anyway. Post-structuralism is one trend in the Western philosophical tradition that was birthed out of the 20th century–a century that did not live up to the promises of the Enlightenment or Progressivism or Post-millennialism. The Holocaust. Two world wars. Genocides. So what does philosophy say in light of all that?
- Listen to A Curious Disputation, Season 2 Ep 8
- Pollis, “The Apparatus of Sexuality”
Smith, “Michel Foucault on Power” (Beyond the Pale)- Halberstam, “The Queer Art of Failure” OR
- Ott and Sawyer, “Sexual Practices and Relationships among Young People”
- Foucault, History of Sexuality Vol. 1*
- Turn in Post-Structuralism Reading Response:
- Guiding Question for your RR: How do you see this theme of “against essentialism” show up in Halberstam’s work, as well as other texts you’ve read in this course and others this year?