section_path: Theoretical traditions/20th-century social theory/Post-structuralism
section_name: Post-structuralism
paragraph_text: Post-structuralism
  
  Post-structuralist thought has tended to reject 'humanist' assumptions in the construction of social theory. Michel Foucault provides an important critique in his Archaeology of the Human Sciences, though Habermas (1986) and Rorty (1986) have both argued that Foucault merely replaces one such system of thought with another. The dialogue between these intellectuals highlights a trend in recent years for certain schools of sociology and philosophy to intersect. The anti-humanist position has been associated with " postmodernism ", a term used in specific contexts to describe an era or phenomena, but occasionally construed as a method.