poststructuralism 

A clearer collective term for many of the texts and trends often subsumed under the misleading label postmodernism. Poststructuralism means theories which arise after the structuralist period in continental philosophy, which draw on structuralism but do not accept all of its ideas. Poststructuralists believe in the importance of discourse for understanding social life and question the idea of the self-determining individual, but they do not believe that people's actions can be entirely reduced to an external structure. Often, they study the ways in which structures can be subverted and broken down through their own limits or through ironic reinterpretation or reconfiguration of the structure itself. See power/knowledge, writerly, differance, line of flight.

Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari, Derrida, Lyotard and Baudrillard are the best-known poststructuralists.

poststructuralism by Andy May 7, 2004

poststructuralism 

An intellectual fashion-statement of some university geeks in the early and late nineties,to use double-quotes( single quotes if one's sarcastic) to define 'things', 'signs', and 'words', which on principle are not be defined by "poststructuralism".

In recent times, "this" has been "replaced" by a "newer one" which argues for or against the use of hyphens to be used between "post" and "colonialism"...

Its traces are still preserved in "universities" by some "confused" academicia to complicate life for the nerds who wish to study the "human sciences" there.In most cases, the "torture" is because these academicians, lol, survive on mouth-watering sums allotted by their country's education department on "post-doctoral" 'research' for the "social sciences". And they want to show they're 'really' serious about doing away wid "structures"...

Evasive French "intellectuals" of the seventies and eighties, nurtured in the Ecole Normale Superiore, are "generally" considered the "founding fathers".Under the tutelage of the self-confused 'Marxist structuralist' Althusser, these "people" forgot all 'bout the real world and debated against the Swiss linguist Saussure's interpretation of signs, and ended up deferring up common sense and meaning from 'texts' and 'life'. For Foucault, the coming of the ultra-Islamic fanatacism under Ayatollah Khomeini signified the" most modern and advanced form of revolt in recent times". For Derrida, there's no meaning in "meaning"(for it is indefinitely deferred, he wrote, after settling comfortably in the US), for Lacan, it is the "incessant sliding of the signifiers"("imagine" a Freudian cosmic penis wrapped up in words, n' u get what he "means"), and for Baurillard, it's a fucking "simulacrum" advocacy of the Bush administration and the Gulf war....

Finally, "poststructuralism" is still the surest "way" to academic success.

Papa: " Johny,Johny?"
Johny: "Yes, papa."
Papa: " Eatin' sugar?"
Johny: "No papa."
Papa: "Fuck you, talk 'poststructuralism' like a bot once more, and me and momma are going to the university strip show without you."

From University legends: And God said,"Let there be light, no more darkness, and poststructuralism to wipe your ass".

poststructuralism by Averroes March 7, 2007

poststructuralism 

An intellectual fashion-statement of some university geeks in the early and late nineties,to use double-quotes( single quotes if one's sarcastic) to define 'things', 'signs', and 'words', which on principle are not be defined by "poststructuralism".

In recent times, "this" has been "replaced" by a "newer one" which argues for or against the use of hyphens to be used between "post" and "colonialism"...

Its traces are still preserved in "universities" by some "confused" academicia to complicate life for the nerds who wish to study the "human sciences" there.In most cases, the "torture" is because these academicians, lol, survive on mouth-watering sums allotted by their country's education department on "post-doctoral" 'research' for the "social sciences". And they want to show they're 'really' serious about doing away wid "structures"...

Evasive French "intellectuals" of the seventies and eighties, nurtured in the Ecole Normale Superiore, are "generally" considered the "founding fathers".Under the tutelage of the self-confused 'Marxist structuralist' Althusser, these "people" forgot all 'bout the real world and debated against the Swiss linguist Saussure's interpretation of signs, and ended up deferring up common sense and meaning from 'texts' and 'life'. For Foucault, the coming of the ultra-Islamic fanatacism under Ayatollah Khomeini signified the" most modern and advanced form of revolt in recent times". For Derrida, there's no meaning in "meaning"(for it is indefinitely deferred, he wrote, after settling comfortably in the US), for Lacan, it is the "incessant sliding of the signifiers"("imagine" a Freudian cosmic penis wrapped up in words, n' u get what he "means"), and for Baudrillard, it's a fucking "simulacrum" advocacy of the Bush administration and the Gulf war....

Finally, "poststructuralism" is still the surest "way" to academic success.

Papa: " Johny,Johny?"
Johny: "Yes, papa."
Papa: " Eatin' sugar?"
Johny: "No papa."
Papa: "Fuck you, talk 'poststructuralism' like a bot once more, and me and momma are going to the university strip show without you."

From University legends: And God said,"Let there be light, no more darkness, and poststructuralism to wipe your ass".

poststructuralism by Averroes March 9, 2007

Scientific Post-structuralism

The application of post-structuralist thought to science: questioning binary oppositions (nature/culture, objective/subjective, fact/value), deconstructing scientific categories, exposing the instability of scientific concepts, and revealing how scientific knowledge is produced through discursive practices rather than simply discovered. Post-structuralism doesn't deny that science works—it denies that science works the way it says it works. It's science forced to confront its own textuality, its own rhetoric, its own constructedness.

"You keep appealing to 'nature' as if it's a stable foundation. Scientific Post-structuralism says: 'nature' is a concept with a history, produced through discourse, serving particular interests. It's not a ground—it's an effect. Your science is text, not truth. Deal with it."

Scientific Post-structuralism by Abzugal February 23, 2026

Epistemological Post-structuralism

The theory that knowledge is produced through discursive practices, power relations, and historical contingencies rather than discovered through neutral observation. There are no foundations, no stable truths, no final vocabularies—only ongoing processes of meaning-making within systems that are themselves unstable. Post-structuralist epistemology doesn't despair at this but explores it: tracing how knowledge is made, how it circulates, how it changes. It's epistemology that has given up on foundations and learned to live with flux.

"You want solid ground for knowledge? Epistemological Post-structuralism says: there is none. There never was. There are only discourses, practices, and power relations. The search for foundations was the mistake. Build without them or don't build at all."

Epistemological Post-structuralism by Abzugal February 23, 2026