> .. But whence the fervor?
Eagleton makes this remark in the course of a critique of Foucault, in which he notes that Foucault's concept of "The Prison" is a rather totalizing concept, which can be dissovled by a Foucaultian nominalistic critique of Foucault. Whereas socratic irony is a game only one can play nominalism is a game many can play until all human thought is reduced to mumbling. Abstract attacks on planning, for example, self-destruct in this way.
Actually, I had none of this in mind when I posted the quotation. I just thought it was cute.
Carrol