Butler and Postanalytic Philosophy

Abstract

AbstractThis article has two aims: (i) to bring Judith Butler and Wilfrid Sellars into conversation; and (ii) to argue that Butler's poststructuralist critique of feminist identity politics has metaphilosophical potential, given herpragmaticparallel with Sellars's critique of conceptual analyses of knowledge. With regard to (i), I argue that Butler's objections to the definitional practice constitutive of certain ways of construing feminism is comparable to Sellars's critique of the analytical project geared toward providing definitions of knowledge. Specifically, I propose that moving away from a definition ofwomanto what one may call poststructuralistsites of womanparallels moving away from adefinition of knowledgeto a pragmatic account ofknowledgeas arecognizable standing in the normative space of reasons. With regard to (ii), I argue that the important parallels between Butler's poststructuralist feminism and Sellars's antirepresentationalist normative pragmatism about knowledge enable one to think of her poststructuralist feminism as mapping outpragmaticcognitive strategies and visions fordoing philosophy. This article starts a conversation between two philosophers whom the literature has yet to fully introduce to each other.