Deontological versus Virtue-ethics Morality in Poststructuralism

*** Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from my book review of Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish for my Theories of Punishment class. I am posting this to show the end product to those who helped me with the antirepresentationalist theory and how it applied to poststructuralist moral-normative thought.

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The most common criticism of Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish – and, for that matter, poststructuralism as a theory – is that it fails to articulate moral norms. If Foucault had articulated norms, it would allow an individual the ability to distinguish acceptable from unacceptable forms of power. But without these norms, it would be difficult to answer the critical question of why domination from this power should be resisted. In other words, Foucault didn't offer an ultimate goal or purpose for this struggle, and left several key questions that didn't have answers: Why was being a true individual such a noble struggle? Why was submission to the conventions of society such a horrible thing? Foucault's lack of a stance on moral norms was a severe limitation because there was no objective guide to criticize structures of domination or a way to bring about social change.

Read the full version at: http://chengwes.info/2006/12/27/deontological-versus-virtue-ethics-morality-in-poststructuralism/