Poststructuralist Approaches to the Concept

This chapter explores how poststructuralist thinkers like Derrida, Deleuze and Foucault redefine the role of concepts in philosophy. It argues that the poststructuralists’ central claim is that the key moment of thinking does not occur with the use of concepts but with the dynamic processes by which concepts are constituted. The chapter begins by setting out the poststructuralists’ criticisms of what they see as a Platonism in traditional accounts of the concept, arguing that such accounts presuppose rather than explain the meaningfulness of our concepts. It then explores antecedents to the poststructuralists in French philosophy, before examining the poststructuralist shift from the discovery of concepts to their creation and reconfiguration. It concludes by analysing Derrida’s notion of différance , Deleuze’s problem-solution framework, and Foucault’s genealogical method to illustrate how poststructuralism challenges traditional accounts of the concept.