Michel Foucault's Archaeology of Scientific Reason

Modern European Philosophy

by Gary Gutting

This is an important introduction to and critical interpretation of the work of the major French thinker, Michel Foucault. Through comprehensive and detailed analyses of such important texts as The History of Madness in the Age of Reason, The Birth of the Clinic, The Order of Things, and The Archaeology of Knowledge, the author provides a lucid exposition of Foucault's "archaeological" approach to the history of thought, a method for uncovering the "unconscious" structures that set boundaries on the thinking of a given epoch. The book casts Foucault in a new light, relating his work to Gaston Bachelard's philosophy of science and Georges Canguilhem's history of science. This perspective yields a new and valuable understanding of Foucault as a historian and philosopher of science, balancing and complementing the more common view of him as primarily a social critic and theorist.

Genres: Philosophy, History

324 pages, Paperback

First published September 19, 1989

About the author

Gary Gutting was an American philosopher and holder of an endowed chair in philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.

Reviews

[Kaden · Rating 5 out of 5]

For someone who hasn't read much Foucault, this gives a good overview of Foucault's earlier works, with fair criticisms, and his archaeological method overall. Moreover, it makes connections between his so-called "archaeological" and "genealogical" writings, where works such as Discipline and Punish can be seen as applying the archaeological method, not merely to discursive practices (as in The Order of Things), but also to nondiscursive practices, more akin to his approach in Madness and Civilisation.

Foucault's transformation of the traditional concept of philosophy in, firstly, turning "away from the effort at an a priori determination of the essential limits of human thought and action and instead [making] it a historical demonstration of the contingency of what presents themselves as necessary restrictions" and, secondly, in no longer asking "it to provide the justification for the values that guide our lives but instead [employing] it to clear the path of the intellectual obstacles to the achievement of those values" is, I think, what philosophy should be.

I think also, that Gutting's concluding remarks about the use of Foucault for those who come after are astute: "First, his idea of writing the history of thought on an archaeological level beneath that of human subjectivity opens up an important new dimension for understanding our past... Second, Foucault's use of histories of thought for the critical purpose of questioning the authority of major bodies of contemporary knowledge is a valuable counter to some of the best hidden and most effective mechanisms of domination in out society... Finally... Through this new conception of philosophy he offers our skeptical age the hope that, even with the Truth, we may still be made free."

[Alexander]

Readers hoping for an ambitious or controversial treatment of or engagement with Foucault should look elsewhere. But it's very clear and helpful.

[Jonathan Barnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Serves

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely helpful for understanding Foucault.

[Robert Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

A focused engagement with the early work of Foucault that connects his thought to the work of Bachelard and Canguilhan.