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Foucault’s discourse analysis

Almost every subject in humanities at university level currently devotes a module on discourse analysis – which invariably will feature Foucault. There is a good reason for this, because Foucault’s discourse not only predates most other theorists, such as Laclau and Mouffe, and is therefore a better starting point; but also because in many ways it is more versatile and broadly applicable.

Dis…

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#discourse #Foucault #knowledge #meaning #power

Peto's paradox

Peto’s paradox

After writing a few recent articles on politics and philosophy, I am happy to do a light one on paradoxes again – today: Peto’s paradox. Peto’s paradox is not a humorous one, like the South Park paradox, but one of those nerdy science ones like the Ross-Littlewood paradox.

Peto’s paradox originates from a relatively simple observation by … Richard Peto that there is no correlation between the…

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#animals #human #paradox #science

Busting myths around assertive behaviour

As I gradually progress in my career, I notice quite a few places asking for ‘assertive leadership skills’ as a requirement in the endless bullet list of skills and experiences. Being assertive, however, is not something that many of us understand – not only in the job market, but also in our personal and familial relationships. Are we ‘assertive’ when we tell our children not to have too many…

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#assertive #leadership #life skills #modesty

How democracy leads to tyranny; or, how Socrates predicted Trump (et al.)

One question often posed to philosophers, and indeed one circulating on online fora somewhat too often, is the relevance of philosophy today. In this article, I want to show that relevance by looking at something deeply entrenched in American politics today – the election (and possible re-election) of Donald Trump as the president of the United States.

In order to address Trump’s election, we…

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#class #democracy #enemy #freedom #people #Plato #political #promise #Socrates

What is philosophy?

A wise ass owl, by Katariina Agnes Fagering

Granted, this question is somewhat untimely for a blog that exists for four years. And yet, keeping up with tradition, it is very timely to ask this after you have dealt with the subject for a decade. So what is philosophy? In a very straightforward way, it could be said to be one of the following:

The use of reason in understanding such things as the…

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#definition #philosophy #reason #way of life #wisdom

Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory

In their seminal 1985 [amazon asin=1781681546&text=Hegemony and Socialist Strategy](second edition with a new introduction 2001), Laclau and Mouffe present a rather complex discourse theory. They claim to oppose a number of theoretical traditions (notably, Michel Foucault), to an extent follow Louis Althusser, certainly borrow a lot of Jacques Lacan, but most…

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#Chantal Mouffe #discourse #Ernesto Laclau #hegemony #public #society