Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 09:46:13 -0700 (MST)
From: Richard Duerden <DUERDENR-AT-jkhbhrc.byu.edu>
Subject: Re: ETHICS AND POST STRUCT.



>  If post structuralists are forced to choose
> between "pessimism" vs "optimism", where their real focus is on closure vs 
> uncertainty, (or what ever you like), then, yes, pessimism more accurately
> describes the post strucuralist. 

Critique isn't pessimism, is it?  I thought it was what Nietzsche 
called it, a gay science, the fro:liche Wissenschaft.  As Nietzsche 
said about nihilism--we're not introducing pessimism; we're pointing 
out the pessimism that metaphysics and ontology have built into their 
system.  Foucault's standing invitation to alterity seems very 
optimistic.  

 Rick Duerden

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