Antiessentialismus und Wahrheitspolitik

Discussing aspects of Marx's critique of political economy and Foucault's analytic of power, the text seeks to separate the reflexive stance of anti-essetialism from two positions wich are often seen as being part of it: judgmental relativism and the ,anti-depth war'. To recognise the historical and social relativity of knowledge does not necessarily imply the view that all theories are equally true. And to analyse social structures and dispositions as underlying conditions of events and behavior is not tantamount to a search for metaphysical parallel universes. Criticising Badiou, the paper concludes with a plea for a realist politics of truth as an alternative to either relativist or rationalist conceptions of this topic.