Description
Book SynopsisExamines the political possibilities emerging with poststructuralist epistemology. Beginning with the premises for the construction of knowledge claims, this work explores the dimensions of materialism, democracy, power, leftist politics, and other themes emerging from the twentieth century philosophic movement.
Trade ReviewIn a series of articles and books over a period of several years, Professor Andrew Koch has grappled with the most interesting and challenging problems at the center of the methodological and policy debates of the political and social sciences. In this book, accepting that 'all political orders use power and are, on some level, repressive,' and that all present political orders are unyieldingly committed to absolutist secular or sacred conceptions of knowledge and human nature, Professor Koch offers a poststructural reformation of the political that abandons the reliance on absolutes and opens up space for counter-discourses of liberation, diversity, and a more open view of our collective political future. Professor Koch's book is a welcome addition to current debates about the need for a fundamental reorientation of thinking about human prospects on planet Earth. -- Edward M. Wheat, University of Southern Mississippi
This is a book well worth reading for its comprehensive sweep and the succinctness of its exposition of all aspects of post-structuralism. -- Horst Hutter, Concordia University
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Poststructuralism and Political Philosophy Chapter 2 The Methods of Inquiry: Weber and Poststructuralism Chapter 3 Niklas Luhmann, Jacqeus Derrida and the Politics of Epistemological Closure Chapter 4 Democracy and Personal Autonomy Chapter 5 Marx, Derrida, and the Politics of Emancipation Chapter 6 Conclusion: The Epistemological Crisis in Contemporary Politics
