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Postmodernism and post-structuralism (Foucault, Derrida)
1966 onward· School or movement· Politics, society & justice
Mostly agreedGood evidence; some details uncertain.
A French-led movement holding that truth, meaning and identity are shaped by language, power and history rather than resting on fixed foundations.
See it on the Philosophy map →The idea
Idea: claims to neutral, universal truth often hide power and exclusion. Michel Foucault traced how prisons, clinics and sexuality produced categories of 'normal' and 'deviant' (Discipline and Punish, 1975). Jacques Derrida's 'deconstruction' argued that texts rest on ranked opposites, like speech over writing, that undo themselves. Jean-François Lyotard defined the postmodern as 'incredulity toward metanarratives', the grand stories of progress (1979). Main objection: critics call it self-refuting relativism, since 'there is no objective truth' claims to be objectively true, and needlessly obscure.
Why it matters
It reshaped literary theory, history, anthropology, gender studies and law, and still fuels arguments over identity, expertise and 'post-truth' politics.
Where it comes from
Foucault's The Order of Things (1966), Derrida's Of Grammatology (1967), Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition (1979). The 1996 Sokal hoax, a spoof article a journal accepted, became critics' rallying point.
Still debated
Whether the label fits at all is disputed: Foucault and Derrida rejected it, and scholars disagree over how relativist they really were.
Connections (2)
▸On the Genealogy of Morals inspired the genealogies of Postmodernism and post-structuralism (Foucault, Derrida)Well documented
The connection
Nietzsche argued that moral values have a history of power struggles behind their claims to timeless truth. Foucault took the method, and its name, to trace how prisons, madness and sexuality came to be defined, arguing that knowledge and power are entangled. Derrida and Gilles Deleuze also drew heavily on Nietzsche.
When and how
Foucault's essay 'Nietzsche, Genealogy, History' (1971), then Discipline and Punish (1975) and The History of Sexuality (1976); Deleuze's Nietzsche and Philosophy (1962).
How we know
Foucault named his method genealogy after Nietzsche and wrote the 1971 essay on it; in a 1984 interview he called himself 'simply Nietzschean'.
Debates and open questions
Whether the French thinkers read Nietzsche accurately, or built a 'French Nietzsche' of their own, is debated among Nietzsche scholars.
▸Postmodernism and post-structuralism (Foucault, Derrida) questioned objective answers to What can we know?Debated
The connection
Postmodern thinkers argued that what counts as knowledge depends on language, institutions and power, not a neutral view from nowhere. Foucault studied how expert fields like psychiatry decide what is true; Lyotard doubted any grand story could justify all knowledge. Critics say this slides into relativism, where no claim is better supported than another.
When and how
France, then American universities, from 1966; Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1979) was commissioned by Quebec's universities council.
How sure are we?
The texts make these claims, but how radical they are is the dispute: Foucault and Derrida both denied being relativists, so readings of this link vary widely.
Debates and open questions
Whether postmodernism undermines objective truth or only exposes bias in how it is pursued, and whether it fed 'post-truth' politics, are fiercely debated.