This essay identifies two different methodological strategies used by the proponents of anarchism. In what is termed the "ontological" approach, the rationale for anarchism depends on a particular representation of human nature. That characterization of "being" determines the relation between the individual and the structures of social life. In the alternative approach, the epistemological status of "representation" is challenged, leaving human subjects without stable identities. Without the possibility of stable human representations, the foundations underlying the exercise of institutional power can be challenged. This epistemological discussion is traced from Max Stirner to the twentieth-century movement known as poststructuralism.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Arac, Jonathan, ed.1986. Postmodernism and politics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press .
2.
Benhabib, Seyla.1987. Epistemologies of postmodernism: A rejoinder to Jean-François Lyotard. New German Critique33:103-26.
3.
Deleuze, Gilles.1983. Nietzsche and philosophy. New York : Columbia University Press.
4.
Derrida, Jacques.1982a. Margins of philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
5.
—. 1982b. Sending: On representation. Social Research49:294-326.
6.
Foster, Hal, ed. 1983. The anti-aesthetic: Essays on postmodern culture. Port Townsend, WA: Bay Press.
7.
Foucault, Michel.1973. The order of things: An archaeology ofthe human sciences . New York: Vintage Books/Random House.
8.
—. 1977. Language, counter-memory, and practice. Edited by Donald F. Bouchard and translated by Donald F. Bouchard and Sherry Simon. New York: Cornell University Press.
9.
—. 1980. Power/knowledge. Edited by Colin Gordon and translated by Colin Gordon et al. New York: Harvester/Pantheon .
10.
. 1981. Questions of method: An interview with Michel Foucault . Ideology and Consciousness8 (Spring): 4-13.
11.
Godwin, William. [1798] 1971. Enquiry concerning political justice. Reprint. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
12.
Gould, James A., and Willis H. Truitt .1973. Political ideologies. New York: Macmillan.
13.
Habermas, Jürgen.1990. The philosophical discourse of modernity. Translated by Frederick Lawrence. Cambridge: MIT Press .
14.
Kaufmann, Walter, ed. 1968. The portable Nietzsche. New York: Viking.
15.
Kropotkin, Peter. [1903] 1987. Mutual aid: A factor of evolution . London: Freedom Press.
16.
Lyotard, Jean-François.1984. The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge . Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press.
17.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. [1872, 1887] 1956. The birth of tragedy and the genealogy of morals. Garden City, NY : Doubleday/Anchor.
18.
—. [1874] 1957. The use and abuse of history . New York: Macmillan.
19.
—. [1901] 1967. The will to power. Edited and translated by Walter Kaufmann.New York: Random House.
20.
Proudhon, Pierre J. [1840] 1966. What is property? An enquiry into the principle of right and of government. New York : Howard Fertig.
21.
Rabinow, Paul, ed. 1984. The Foucault reader. New York: Pantheon .
22.
Ross, Andrew, ed. 1988. Universal abandon? The politics of postmodernism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
23.
Stirner, Max. [1845] 1973. The ego and his own. Edited by James J. Martin and translated by Steven T. Byington. Reprint. New York: Dover.
24.
Strong, Tracy B., ed. 1988. Friedrich Nietzsche and the politics of transfiguration. Berkeley: University of California Press.
25.
Treichler, Paula.1987. AIDS, homophobia, and biomedical discourse: An epidemic of signification. Cultural Studies1 (3): 263-305.
26.
White, Stephen K.1988. Poststructuralism and political reflection. Political Theory16 (2): 186-208.
27.
Apter, David E., and James Joll, eds. 1971. Anarchism today. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
28.
Botwinick, Aryeh.1990. Skepticism and political participation. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
29.
Bouchard, Donald F., ed. 1977. Language, counter-memory, practice: Selected essays and interviews by Michel Foucault. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
30.
Callinicos, Alex.1985. Postmodernism, poststructuralism, post-Marxism?Theory, Culture, and Society2(3): 85-101.
31.
Derrida, Jacques.1978. Spurs: Nietzsche's styles. Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
32.
—. 1980. Positions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
33.
Dews, Peter.1984. Power and subjectivity in Foucault. New Left Review144:72-95.
34.
—. 1987. Logics of disintegration: Poststructuralist thought and the claims of critical theory. London: Verso.
35.
Featherstone, Mike.1988. In pursuit of the postmodern: An introduction. Theory, Culture and Society5:195-215.
36.
Foster, Hal.1985. Recodings: Art, spectacle, cultural politics. Port Townsend, WA: Bay Press.
37.
Foucault, Michel.1971. Orders of discourse. Social Science Information10 (2): 7-30.
38.
—. 1972. The archaeology of knowledge and the discourse on language . New York: Pantehon .
39.
—. 1978. About the concept of the "dangerous individual" in 19th-century legal psychiatry. International Journal of Law and psychiatry1:1-18.
40.
Frank, Manfred.1989. What is neostructuralism?Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press.
41.
Gordon, Colin, ed. 1980. Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings 1972-1977, Michel Foucault. New York: Pantheon.
42.
Hassan, Ihab.1985. The culture of postmodernism. Theory, Culture and Society2 (3): 119-31.
43.
Hoy, David.1982. Deciding Derrida. LondonReview of Books, February-March.
44.
Jameson, Fredric.1984. Postmodernism, or the culture logic of late capitalism . New Left Review146:53-92.
45.
Kellner, Douglas.1988. Postmodernism as social theory: Some challenges and problems . Theory, Culture and Society5:239-69.
46.
Kramnick, Isaac, ed. 1976. William Godwin: Enquiry concerning political justice. Baltimore : Penguin.
47.
Love, Nancy S.1986. Marx, Nietzsche, and Modernity. New York: Columbia University Press.
48.
Lyotard, Jean-François.1988. The differend: Phrases m dispute. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
49.
Nietzsche, Friedrich.1973. Beyond good and evil. Baltimore : Penguin.
50.
Perrot, Michelle.1981. Questions of method: An interview with Michel Foucault . Ideology and Consciousness8:3-14.
51.
Read, Herbert.1939. Poetry and anarchism. New York : Macmillan.
52.
Richters, Annemiek.1988. Modernity-postmodernity controversies: Habermas and Foucault . Theory, Culture and Society5:611-43.
53.
Roszak, Theodore.1969. The making of a counter culture: Reflections on the technocratic society and its youthful opposition. Garden City, NY: Doubleday
54.
Silverman, Hugh J., ed. 1988. Philosophy and non-philosophy since Merleau-Ponty. New York: Routledge.
55.
Skinner, Quentin, ed. 1985. The return of grand theory in the human sciences. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
56.
van Reijen, Willem, and Dick Veerman. 1988. An interview with Jean-François Lyotard. Theory, Culture and Society5:277-309.
57.
Veerman, Dick.1988. Introduction to Lyotard. Theory, Culture and Society5:271-75.
58.
Walter, Nicholas, and Heiner Becker, eds. 1988. Act for yourselves: Articles from "Freedom" 1886-1907, by Peter Kropotkin. London: Freedom Press.
59.
Woodcock, George.1962. Anarchism: A history of libertarian ideas and movements . New York: Meridian Books.
