an idea similar to this one was formulated by habermas as a criticism of
foucault's genealogy. see the last two chapters of his book
'philosophical discourse of modernity'. there habermas supports it with
quotations from nancy frazer ('why fight at all?')
maybe you can find a lead for your quotation in these references.
On Thu, 7 May 1998, M.A. King wrote:
> I've been going nuts trying to track this down: "The newer liberation
> movements suffer from their inability to find a principle on the basis of
> which they can work out a new ethics." Many thanks in advance to anyone
> who can give me a reference.
>
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> Matthew A. King ---- Department of Philosophy ---- McMaster University
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> "The border is often narrow between a permanent temptation to commit
> suicide and the birth of a certain form of political consciousness."
> (Michel Foucault)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>