Anti-foundationalism

Anti-foundationalism (also called nonfoundationalism) 3 Hope and fear

is, as the name implies, a term applied to any philoso-
phy which rejects a foundationalist approach, i.e. an anti- Stanley Fish distinguishes between what he calls an-
foundationalist is one who does not believe that there is tifoundationalist theory hope and antifoundational-
some fundamental belief or principle which is the basic ist theory fearnding them however both equally
ground or foundation of inquiry and knowledge.[1] illusory.[10]
Fear of the corrosive eects of antifoundationalism was
widespread in the late twentieth century, anticipating
such things as a cultural meltdown and moral anarchy,[11]
1 Anti-essentialism or (at the least) a loss of the necessary critical distance
to allow for leverage against the status quo.[12] For Fish,
Anti-foundationalists use logical or historical or ge- however, the threat of a loss of objective standards of
nealogical attacks on foundational concepts (see espe- rational enquiry with the disappearance of any found-
cially Nietzsche and Foucault), often coupled with alter- ing principle was a false fear: far from opening the way
native methods for justifying and forwarding intellectual to an unbridled subjectivity, antifoundationalism leaves
inquiry, such as the pragmatic subordination of knowl- the individual rmly entrenched within the conventional
edge to practical action.[2] Foucault dismissed the search context and standards of enquiry/dispute of the disci-
for a return to origins as Platonic essentialism, preferring pline/profession/habitus within which s/he is irrevocably
to stress the contingent nature of human practices.[3] placed.[13]
Anti-foundationalists oppose metaphysical methods. By the same token, however, the antifoundationalist hope
Moral and ethical anti-foundationalists are often crit- of escaping local situations through awareness of the con-
icized for moral relativism, but anti-foundationalists tingency of all such situationsthrough recognition of
often dispute this charge, oering alternative methods of the conventional/rhetorical nature of all claims to master
moral thought that they claim do not require foundations. principlesthat hope is to Fish equally foredoomed by
Thus while Charles Taylor accused Foucault of having the very nature of the situational consciousness, the all-
no order of human life, or way we are, or human nature, embracing social and intellectual context, in which every
that one can appeal to in order to judge or evaluate individual is separately enclosed.[14]
between ways of life, Foucault nevertheless insists on Fish has also noted how, in contradistinction to hopes
the need for continuing ethical enquiry without any of an emancipatory outcome from antifoundationalism,
universal system to appeal to.[4] anti-essentialist theories arguing for the absence of a
Niklas Luhmann used cybernetics to challenge the role of transcontextual point of reference have been put to con-
foundational unities and canonical certainties.[5] servative and neo-conservative, as well as progressive,
ends.[15] Thus, for example, John Searle has oered an
account of the construction of social reality fully com-
patible with the acceptance stance of the man who is at
home in his society, the man who is chez lui in the social
2 Totalisation and legitimation institutions of the society...as comfortable as the sh in
the sea.[16]
Antifoundationalists oppose totalising visions of social,
scientic or historical reality, considering them to lack
legitimation,[6] and preferring local narratives instead. 4 Criticism
No social totality but a multitude of local and concrete
practices; not a history but at best histories.[7] In such
neopragmatism, there is no overall truth, merely an on- Antifoundationalists have been criticised for attacking all
going process of better and more fruitful methods of general claims except their own; for oering a localizing
edication.[8] Even our most taken for granted categories rhetoric [17]
contradicted in practice by their own globalizing
for social analysisof gender, sex, race, and classare style.
considered by anti-essentialists like Marjorie Garber as Edward Said condemned radical anti-foundationalism for
social constructs.[9] excessive cultural relativism and overdependence on the

1
2 7 REFERENCES

linguistic turn at the expense of human realities.[18] 6 See also

Coherentism
5 Anti-foundationalists Contextualism

Foundationalism

Justied true belief

Nominalism

Postfoundationalism

Postmodern philosophy

Pragmatism

Relativism

Reliabilism

Skepticism

Vericationism

7 References
[1] J. Childers/G. Hentzi, The Columbia Dictionary of Mod-
ern Literary and Cultural Criticism (1995) p. 100

[2] J. Childers/G. Hentzi, The Columbia Dictionary of Mod-

ern Literary and Cultural Criticism (1995) p. 240-1

[3] Gary Gutting ed., The Cambridge Companion to Foucault

(2007) p. 34
G.W.F. Hegel is considered to be one of the early anti-
foundationalists [4] J. W. Bernauer/M.Mahon, 'Michel Foucaults Ethical
Imagination', in Gutting ed., p. 149-50

[5] Niklas Luhmann, Theories of Distinction (2002) p. 192

John Dewey and p. 110-12

Stanley Fish [6] R. Appignanesi/C. Garratt, Postmodernism for beginners

(Cambridge 1995) p. 105-9
Michel Foucault
[7] E. D. Ermath, Sequel to History (Princeton 1992) p. 56-66
G.W.F. Hegel [8] J. Childers/G. Hentzi, The Columbia Dictionary of Mod-
ern Literary and Cultural Criticism (1995) p. 241
William James
[9] Adam Phillips, On Flirtation (1994) p. 122-130
Friedrich Nietzsche
[10] H. Aram Veeser ed., The Stanley Fish Reader (1999) p.
Charles Sanders Peirce 94-5

[11] Ermath, p. 58-62

Richard Rorty
[12] M. Hardt/K. Weeks eds., The Jameson Reader (2000) p.
Wilfrid Sellars 227

Ludwig Wittgenstein [13] Veeser ed., p. 94

[14] Veeser ed., p. 196-7 and p. 213

Jacques Derrida
[15] Stanley Fish, Professional Correctness (1995) p. 130 and
Roy Bhaskar p. x
 3

[16] John R. Searle, The Construction of Social Reality (Pen-

guin 1996)p. 147

[17] Nicos P. Mouzelis, Sociological Theory: What went

Wrong? (1995) p. 43-4

[18] Tony Judt, Reappraisals (2008) p. 164

8 Further reading
Katherine N. Hayles, Chaos Bound (1990)
W. J. T. Mitchell, Against Theory (1985)
Richard Rorty, Consequences of Pragmatism (1982)
Edward Said, Humanism and Democratic Criticism
(2004)

9 External links
Varieties of Anti-Foundationalism
4 10 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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