Touching poststructural/postmodern philosophy has immediately messed up my thoughts. As suspected, much of existing literature posit some form of nihilism and helplessness due to the social forces we are inevitably embroiled in.
But I believe that truth nevertheless exists, even if we cannot immediately gain a grasp on it. Without a central notion of truth within knowledge, no knowledge can be reliably generated and the whole enterprise collapses. But to work out that truth I think we need to look not only into individual thoughts and intentions but also understand society's role in shaping those intentions, which means getting into the nasty mess of power relations and institutional roles. Morality as such cannot be excluded from politics or vice-versa. For other branches of philosophy such as philosophy of mind or language it may be easier to isolate the body of knowledge from social influences, but ethics, being knowledge for acting in public, definitely has to encompass some form of explanation for social forces.
Working out the foundations of a theory is harder than I had imagined. I had imagined working out a concept and then steadily working upwards, but it seems I am marooned even before I can hardly grasp the metaphysical implications of such concepts. hrmmmmmm.
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