Foucault's Archaeology : Science and Transformation

David Webb

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN:
  9780748630387
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Deconstruction in Philosophy

This book provides a new perspective on Foucault's The Archaeology of Knowledge by revealing the extent to which its approach to language was influenced by the mathematical sciences. Setting out this background to Foucault's analysis makes The Archaeology of Knowledge both accessible in a new way, and relevant to issues that are at the heart of much contemporary debate over the nature of critical thought and the relation between philosophy and the sciences. This book sheds new light on a crucial period of Foucault's work by highlighting his relation to thinkers such as Cavaillès and Serres. It aims to provide a reading of The Archaeology of Knowledge that puts it at the heart Foucault's thought. Rather than attempting a scientific study of language as such, Foucault is shown to have adopted a mode of thought indebted to thinkers in the scientific and epistemological tradition.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Contents
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• BACKGROUND
• 1. TO WHAT PROBLEM DOES THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE RESPOND?
• 2. GASTON BACHELARD: CONSTRUCTION AND TEMPORAL DISCONTINUITY
• 3. JEAN CAVAILLÈS: GROUNDING THOUGHT IN ITS OWN HISTORY
• 4. MICHEL SERRES: MATHEMATICS, EPISTEMOLOGY, HISTORY
• 5. MICHEL SERRES: ATOMISM
• 6. THE MATHEMATICAL A PRIORI
• 7. TEMPORAL DISPERSION
• COMMENTARY ONTHE ARCHAEOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE
• PART I: Introduction
• Part II: The Discursive Regularities
• 1. THE UNITIES OF DISCOURSE
• 2. DISCURSIVE FORMATIONS
• 3. FORMATION OF OBJECTS
• 4. THE FORMATION OF ENUNCIATIVE MODALITIES
• 5. THE FORMATION OF CONCEPTS
• 6. THE FORMATION OF STRATEGIES
• 7. REMARKS AND CONSEQUENCES
• Part III: The Statement and the Archive
• 1. DEFINING THE STATEMENT
• 2. THE ENUNCIATIVE FUNCTION
• 3. THE DESCRIPTION OF STATEMENTS
• 4. RARITY, EXTERIORITY, ACCUMULATION
• 5. THE HISTORICAL A PRIORI AND THE ARCHIVE
• Part IV: Archaeological Description
• 1. ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
• 2. THE ORIGINAL AND THE REGULAR
• 3. CONTRADICTIONS
• 4. THE COMPARATIVE FACTS
• 5. CHANGE AND TRANSFORMATIONS
• 6. SCIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE
• Part V: Conclusion
• CLOSING REMARKS
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index