A Critique of Ernesto Laclau's and Chantal Mouffe's Theory of Discourse Analysis

Ernesto Laclau's and Chantal Mouffe's theory of discourse analysis proposed in their book, "Hegemony and socialist strategy", is one of the new theories which can contribute to expounding and analyzing the function of sociopolitical phenomena and promoting the capacity of prevision, prediction and development – making in societies by means of developing the significs (semantic theory) which consists of a set of interrelated concepts and exploiting them for creating a systematic structure. Discourse analysis, in terms of semantic theory has a root in Saussurian structural linguistics and as a social theory; it is a synthetic theory whose roots are detected in the ideas of such thinkers as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Karl Marx, and Antonio Gramsci. This theory, nevertheless, has some weakness, such as lack of the effective linguistic tools to analyze and explain semantic discrepancies. The present paper aims at providing a clear the definition of discourse, the meanings it conveys and its philosophical, ontological, and epistemological principles, and finally discussing the criticisms made in the light of the perspective of Islamic theosophy about it.