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Two Alternatives of Philosophy of Science: Thomas Kuhn and Michel Foucault

Dvi mokslo filosofijos alternatyvos: Thomas Kuhnas ir Michelis Foucault

Author(s): Mantautas Ruzas / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 4/2006

Keywords: paradigm; incommensurability; episteme; scientific revolution; development of science.

The article deals with post-positivist Thomas Samuel Kuhn's and post-structuralist Michel Foucault's anticumulativistic conceptions of the history of science, and its fundamentai similarities as well as differences. Both positions are taken as alternatives to traditional historiography of science, which analyses development of science from evolutionary point of view. Kuhn's philosophical conception reconstructs ruptures in the history of natūrai sciences. The ruptures are determined by scientific revolutions. Mostly, the revolutions are so radical, that make scientific world-views or paradigm's incommensurable. Foucault also analyses changes of incompatible epistemes in the culture of Western Europe. The concept of episteme in Foucault's philosophical system means fundamentai structure that grounds knowledge and its discourses within a particular epoch. Kuhn and Foucault negate teleological myth of science, which treats science as rational and linear development. However, Foucault's philosophical system is grander in comparison with Kuhn's. Kuhn's field of interest is only changes of paradigms in the context of natūrai sciences, whereas Foucault tries to reconstruct entire archeological strata or epistemes which determine generation of ideas and conceptions in particular epoch.

Can One Speak of What One Must Pass over in Silence? The Analysis of the Notion of „Archive” as a Figure of Power in the Michel Foucault’s Works

Czy można mówić o tym, o czym mówić nie można? Analiza kategorii archiwum jako figury władzy w pismach Michela Foucaulta

Author(s): Piotr Sadzik / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 11/2014

Keywords: archive; Foucault; power; resistance; ethics; history; Quignard

The article discusses Michel Foucault’s notion of “archive” which for the philosopher should be understood in the broader sense, not only as a place of gathering and of preserving documents but also as a discursive machine which forms and constructs a subject identity. The prefix “arche” suggests that every archive is implicated in mechanisms of power which high-handedly demarcates the archive, defines its status and decides what should be excluded outside. The archive establishes a field of the utterance possibility and decides, in other words, what one can speak of and what one must pass over in silence. Is it then possible to stand up to this archival diktat, i.e. is it then possible to express that which has not been included in the archive or that which has been excluded and condemned to dumbness? If history was written only by the winners, it means that the voice of the oppressed could appear only in the writing of oppressors who thereby become paradoxical representatives of their victims. Referring to Jacques Derrida’s and Pascal Quignard’s works, I try to prove that archival diktat, however authoritarian it can be, doesn’t incapacitate the subject entirely. In their opinion (and from the point of Foucault’s view) the place where one can expresses that which can’t be expressed (and which is absent in the archive) is literature which becomes thereby an an-archival or even an-archic place par excellence. Literature becomes a place of an ethical gesture toward a bruised past, it takes the side of those who have been deprived of voice. One should, according to Walter Benjamin’s famous statement, “account for the truth, that nothing which has ever happened is to be given as lost to history”. Against dominative power we should oppose the apologia of the harassed, inappreciable and defeated existence.

French Theory and Media Studies: What can Media Cultural studies learn from M. Foucault, P. Bourdieu and J.P. Sartre?

Француска теорија и медиумските студии: Што можат медиумските културни студии да научат од М. Фуко, П. Бурдје и Ж.П. Сартр?

Author(s): Zala Volčič / Language(s): English,Macedonian / Issue: 1/2006

Keywords: French theory; media studies; Foucault; Bourdieu; Sartre;

Generally speaking, “identity” is a multifaceted topic that currently continues to have a great deal of salience in critical theory and cultural studies media research. While concepts of both individual and collective identity have arisen historically in relation to mostly psychoanalytical and social/psychological theory, a critical approach to, for example, national identity has also incorporated learnings from globalization, literary theory, critical race theory, feminism, and postcolonial critiques, among other perspectives.

Herbert Marcuse vs Michel Foucault. On How Outsiders Changed the Western Culture in the 1960s and the 1970s

Porównanie myśli Herberta Marcusego z myślą Michela Foucaulta – czyli jak w latach sześćdziesiątych i siedemdziesiątych XX wieku outsiderzy zmienili społeczny porządek kultury zachodniej

Author(s): Markus Lipowicz / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 49/2016

Keywords: outsiders; cultural revolution; establishment; the revolt of knowledge; morality; social order; social praxis

The aim of the article is to compare the ideas of Herbert Marcuse and Michel Foucault. In his works Marcuse focused on the excluded social circles. Their revolt against the establishment shook up the normative foundations of the social order in the 1960s and the 1970s, which finally led to a cultural revolution. Inspired by these social changes, Foucault was interested in the effects of this revolution at the epistemological and moral level. He recognized that the actions of the excluded circles weakened the institutional order which hitherto tempered the development of the alternative forms of knowledge and lifestyle in the western culture. Hence the contemporary western culture is a place of relentless conflicts between different values and conceptions of truth, but also a place of unique tolerance and a variety of lifestyles.

M. Foucault: How We Behave: Sex, Food, and Other Ethical Matters, Interview by Paul Rabinow and H. L. Dreyfus

Как се държим [За генеалогията на етиката: Обзор на текущата работа]. Мишел Фуко, интервю на Пол Рабинау и Хюбърт Л. Драйфъс

Author(s): Michel Foucault,Paul Rabinow,Hubert L. Dreyfus / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 3-4/2016

The Meaning of Biopolitics in the Age of Numerical Revolution: What Has Remained of Foucault’s and McLuhan’s Legacy? The Contours of a New Expository Society

Značenje bio-politike u doba numeričke revolucije: što ostaje od Foucaultovog i McLuhanovog nasljeđa? Konture novog društva izloženosti

Author(s): Jure Vujić / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 17/2020

Keywords: biopolitics; power; numerical age; exposure; media;

Marshall McLuhan, in the 1960s, coined the well-known phrase “the world is a global village” at a time when the Internet did not exist, and new communication and media technologies were about to transform the world into a planetary village via interconnection. However, McLuhan may not have anticipated that accelerated technological advances would be made possible by communication without a “physical mediator-factor” and that the utilitarian and instrumental dimension of communication would give way to cultural and social domination and manipulation. In the numerical age, Foucault’s notion of “bio-politics” as a system of complete control and regulation of the body and life by means of science and technology is, at first glance, an outdated term, belonging to the past of modern, biopolitical and repressive societies. The numerical control is today based on a deep urge for individual and narcissistic exhibitionism in the new expository society.

Odpowiedź na recenzję prof. UP dr. hab. Tomasza Sikory dotyczącą książki Pauliny Kłos-Czerwińskiej Discourse: An Introduction to Van Dijk, Foucault and Bourdieu, Wrocław – Washington, D.C. 2015: Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły Filologicznej we Wrocławiu,

Odpowiedź na recenzję prof. UP dr. hab. Tomasza Sikory dotyczącą książki Pauliny Kłos-Czerwińskiej Discourse: An Introduction to Van Dijk, Foucault and Bourdieu, Wrocław – Washington, D.C. 2015: Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły Filologicznej we Wrocławiu,

Author(s): Paulina Kłos-Czerwińska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2018

FOUCAULT’S ARCHEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS ON MAN AND HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE HUMAN SCIENCES AND ANTHROPOLOGY

FOUCAULT’S ARCHEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS ON MAN AND HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE HUMAN SCIENCES AND ANTHROPOLOGY

Author(s): Kushtrim Ahmeti / Language(s): English / Issue: 11-12/2019

Keywords: The human;human sciences;archaeological analysis;anthropology;

Michel Foucault is a French thinker of the philosophical realm of last century's 60s and 70s, who is considered a postmodernist and poststructuralist. Although he regards himself a product of modern tradition, his works present a comprehensive and original critique. precisely of this way of thinking. With his ideas he wanted to make a clear distinction from other prior tendencies, thus joining the voice of other postmodern theorists who sought to demonstrate the alternatives, offered by the then modern philosophical systems, as extremely humanistic. The main purpose of this paper is to examine Foucault's archaeological analysis of the human being and to establish its relationship to the human sciences, which studies the human being as an organism, an economic producer, and as a creator of language, as well as to anthropology, which enables the re-actualization of the general critique. The interpretation will be carried out through content analysis- data reduction by categorization-reduction of all qualitative material in order to identify certain consistent meanings.

MICHEL FOUCAULT ON CARE OF THE SELF IN PLATO AND THE NEOPLATONISTS

MICHEL FOUCAULT SUR LE SOUCI DE SOI CHEZ PLATON ET LES NÉOPLATONICIENS

Author(s): Adriana Neacşu / Language(s): French / Issue: 51/2023

Keywords: care for oneself; self-knowledge; self-culture; truth; condition of spirituality; art to live; Plato; Neoplatonists;

Analyzing the concept of care of the self in ancient Greco-Roman culture, Foucault pays special attention to Plato and the Neoplatonists. From his point of view, the first great elaboration of the concept of care of the self is found in the Platonic dialogues, and the Neoplatonists fit, in general, into the same theoretical framework established by Plato. Of course, due to the historical evolution of philosophical thought and collective mentality, Neoplatonists differ from Plato through some important aspects of their conception of care of the self. But these, though are clear enough to give the Neoplatonists an undoubted originality, nevertheless fail to give their theoretical position a radically different configuration from that of Plato. Therefore, what is essential in the concept of care of the self in Plato is kept intact in the Neoplatonists. In short, it's about the (approximate) identity between care of the self and self-knowledge, as well as about the access, through them, to the truth, by which reveals to the soul, that is, to that self that knows itself and takes care of itself, that it is of the same nature as divinity. These elements constitute a unity which, according to Foucault, will not be found as such in any other philosophical tradition of Antiquity. The conclusion is that although Michel Foucault analyzes only one dialogue of Plato, namely Alcibiades, as well as only the Neoplatonists' comments on it, all aspects that he highlights manage to give sufficient coherence and credibility to his hypothesis.

Foucault and Bourdieu’s Deconstruction of the Relationship Between Power and Gender

İktidar ve Cinsiyet Arasındaki İlişkiye Dair Foucault ve Bourdieu’nün Analizi

Author(s): Eda Denli / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 31/2023

Keywords: Foucault; Bourdieu; Gender; Power;

The role of Foucault and Bourdieu in gender studies and in providing us with an understanding of power relations in society is very important. Taking the phenomenon of power beyond individual behavior and structure, Foucault stated that it is more important to understand how power works than what it is. Drawing attention to the fact that power has not only a restrictive but also an encouraging functioning, Foucault also claims that the phenomenon of power is too complex to be reduced to individual choice, class or the structural requirements of the capitalist system. He also suggests that power turns into a discursive formation that functions by setting the agenda, limiting discussions, defining what truth is, correcting, normalizing, merging with knowledge and therefore deepening itself with both epistemological and ethical judgments, such as right-wrong, good-bad. Power relations are not only about the ability to control or influence others, but also about the ability to resist or challenge domination. Therefore, power relations are characterized by conflict and tension, as individuals and groups struggle to maintain or challenge their dominant positions. Therefore, power relations also refer to the ability of individuals and groups to shape their own ways of thinking and acting. In this way, power relations are both a reflection and a means of reproducing social and cultural norms and values. Bourdieu's definition of power also emphasizes the importance of cultural capital in the acquisition of power. According to Bourdieu, power is a state obtained through education, socialization and cultural experiences. This means that those who have access to cultural resources, such as education and exposure to high culture, are more likely to achieve power and influence in society. In addition, individuals from higher social classes have more power and influence, as they have October greater access to cultural capital.

Foucault’s critical ontology

FUKOOVA KRITIČKA ONTOLOGIJA

Author(s): Branko Romčević / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2023

Keywords: Aufklärung; critique; archaeology; genealogy

In this paper, we deal with Foucault’s interpretation of Kant’s understanding of Aufklärung and critique, following first reactions to his later interest in these topics. Then we present the textual situation through which Foucault’s attitude towards Kant was determined, starting with his supplementary thesis from 1961, through the ninth chapter of Order of Things (1966), and up to the text „What is Enlightenment?” from 1984. In addition, we find that the central was his lecture given in 1978, which was published in 1990. In contains several motifs from Order of Things (related to the question of epistemic coercion), and through the interpretation of Kant’s Aufklärung as critical attitude, a line of thought was opened that leads to the essay from Foucault’s last year. The accent of the exposition is placed on Foucault’s combination of Aufklärung and criticism with archaeology and genealogy, and on showing not only the face but, understood in a Foucauldian way, the other side of those connections. After that, we come to Foucault’s examination of interpreting Aufklärung as a position of critical ontology that will explore the possibilities of transgressing the limits set for us. Finding that Foucault’s late approach to Kant is largely conditioned by his genealogical views and analysis of governance/resistance relationship, we conclude that Foucault did not become a Kantian in the end, but that he carried out a genealogical appropriation of Kant, in order to obtain a greater philosophical communicativeness of his thesis on the subject as a field of self-elaboration. In the final part of the paper, we examine Habermas’ objection about Foucault as young conservative.

The death of the autor between Barthes, Derrida and Foucault

La mort de l’ auteur entre Barthes, Derrida et Foucault

Author(s): Salim Haffas / Language(s): French / Issue: 1/2024

Keywords: The death of the autor. Literary criticism. Jacques Derrida. Roland Barthes. Michel Foucault.

This close examination will reveal profound differences but also common characteristics between Derrida, Barthes and Foucault on the concept of the death of the author. All of these theorists want to free the semantic process from the authorities who are supposed to give it the final word, and they highlight the role of intertextuality. However, where as in Barthes and Foucault’ s accounts it arises from purely literary or discursive considerations, where death is an inescapable fact of the literariness of specific discursive occurrences, in Derrida’ s work it has broader implications, where it is identified with the process of différance, and where it becomes the death of each speaking subject.

An Analysis of the Problems of Truth and Post-Truth from the Perspective of Gramsci and Foucault

An Analysis of the Problems of Truth and Post-Truth from the Perspective of Gramsci and Foucault

Author(s): Rares-Dimitrie Radoiu / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: truth; post-truth; Gramsci; Foucault

This paper focuses on the relation between truth and power as described by Gramsci and Foucault. It discusses the way in which post-truth is used in the counter-hegemonic discourses and what the effect of these new discursive form could be. Attention is drawn to the role of intellectuals in the production and dissemination of truth and post-truth in society. As Foucault argues, every society has its own regime of truth, containing specific beliefs, values and mores. He has focused on the way in which this regime is established and distributed in the society. We now face the emergence of an alternate regime, the “regime of post-truth,” which tackles the existing regime of truth by using “alternative facts” as weapons. The new type of discourse questions the hegemonic order by creating a certain degree of confusion among citizens, so the way they evaluate the political space is completely changed. Truth, as Gramsci argues, has a very important role in the construction and reproduction of a certain way of life and worldview. This means that the spread of post-truth can affect the way in which individuals think and act in society, as well as the way societies are organized.

Michel Foucault versus the Socialist Man: Interdisciplinarity as a Mainstream of the Humanities?

Michel Foucault versus socialistický člověk: Interdisciplinarita jako mainstream humanitních věd?

Author(s): Petr Andreas / Language(s): Czech / Issue: 1/2024

Keywords: “new man”;socialist man;Czechoslovakia;Soviet Union;Stalinism;worker;“new woman”;Soviet man;historical methodology;discourse analysis;interdisciplinarity

The author of this review article focuses primarily on the monograph by cultural historian Denisa Nečasová titled "Nový socialistický člověk: Československo 1948–1956" [New Socialist Man: Czechoslovakia 1948–1956]. While paying particular attention to the methodological aspects of Nečasová’s research approach, based on discourse analysis and inspired by Michel Foucault, he draws more general conclusions about the problematic adoption of fashionable trends in Czech academic mainstream. In his view, Nečasová presents extensive heuristics, drawn from non-fiction texts, which offer a solid picture of the construction of the ideal of the new socialist man in Stalinist Czechoslovakia (although she limits her sources and conclusions to the Czech lands). She differentiates the object of her research into three categories, defined by the concepts of the worker, the new woman, and the Soviet man, analysing herself their characteristics. In doing so, she quotes a number of inspiring domestic and foreign authors and incorporates a number of historical excursuses. In the reviewer‘s opinion, Nečasová is less convincing in her methodological grasp of the topic, the shortcomings of which did not allow her to fulfil the potential of an otherwise rich work and to arrive at generally valid theses on which further research could be based. Thus, despite its undeniable strengths, the book may also illustrate the dangers of the popular interdisciplinarity, when the artificial linking of methods and superficial use of concepts obscures more traditional ways of treating the topic.

A STUDY ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ART AND POWER IN MICHEL FOUCAULT

MİCHEL FOUCAULT’DA SANAT VE İKTİDAR İLİŞKİSİ ÜZERİNE BİR İNCELEME

Author(s): R. Görkem Aytimur / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 45/2024

Keywords: Foucault; art and power; geneology; episteme; history of madness and sexuality;

In this study, Michel Foucault’s thoughts about the structure of the mutual relationship between art and power are examined. While discussing the impact of power on art, Foucault tried to analyze the structural situation of power through various institutions and disciplines of modern societies. He created this analysis on the basis of the relationship between power and knowledge. According to Foucault, the relationship between art and power should be considered at the level of knowledge because knowledge shapes how society perceives a certain issue and how it acts upon this perception. Art is a functional tool in the transmission and distribution of a certain type of information. For this reason, while Foucault considered power and knowledge as an inseparable whole, he investigated the areas where power, knowledge and art are intertwined. According to him, all types of knowledge are associated with epistemological conditions and structural perspectives specific to a particular period. This concept also plays a central role in Foucault’s thoughts about art and is explained within the nature of art itself. Power controls the production of a particular type of knowledge through the episteme and therefore determines what art will represent. Foucault also discussed art at the center of the concept of knowledge genealogy. The study was structured as a qualitative research with the descriptive data analysis method, and the data obtained from the literature were evaluated in line with this method. As a result, a conceptual framework has been drawn on the relationship between art and power, with Foucault’s thoughts on art discussed under these headings being examined on the basis of knowledge.

Interpreting neoliberalism with Foucault and Lacan – fantasy, depression and the entrepreneurial subjectivity

Interpreting neoliberalism with Foucault and Lacan – fantasy, depression and the entrepreneurial subjectivity

Author(s): Milan A. Urošević / Language(s): English,Serbian / Issue: 3/2024

Keywords: neoliberalism;psychoanalysis;fantasy;governmentality theory;subjectivity

The article is dedicated to the construction of a unique theoretical framework aimed at understanding the phenomenon of neoliberalism. In this regard, we primarily rely on the conceptual framework of the governmentality theory, which originates from the work of Michel Foucault. For a better understanding of how neoliberalism interpellates individuals, we will complement the conceptual framework with Lacanian psychoanalysis. We will demonstrate how such a synthesis allows for overcoming the conceptual gap that exists in the governmentality theory between the rationality of governmental regimes and the subjectivity of individuals. We will apply the theoretical synthesis of the governmentality theory and Lacanian psychoanalysis to understand how the neoliberal regime mobilizes subjects into appropriate forms of action, inducing them to adopt the model of subjectivity that Foucault calls homo economicus. Finally, we will examine the phenomenon of depression and show how our theoretical framework can establish a connection between neoliberalism, neoliberal subjectivity, and depression as a mental disorder.

Foucault’s Analysis and Interdisciplinary Perspective on Velázquez's Painting Las Meninas

Foucault’s Analysis and Interdisciplinary Perspective on Velázquez's Painting Las Meninas

Author(s): Vuksan Vuksanović / Language(s): English / Issue: 35/2024

Keywords: representation; Foucault; Las Meninas; épistémè; interdisciplinary analysis; self-referentiality.

This paper examines Michel Foucault's interpretation of Diego Velázquez's painting Las Meninas (1656) which he uses to illustrate shifts in épistémès throughout history. After analyzing Foucault's interpretation, I extended his approach by employing an interdisciplinary perspective to relativize some of his concepts. The study incorporates various interdisciplinary methods, demonstrating that these approaches lead to a more profound understanding of the ontological, aesthetic, technical, psychological, and sociological dimensions of Velázquez's painting. This strategy demonstrates that artistic creations are dynamic and surpass simplistic dualistic frameworks, methodological relativism, and determinism. As a result, Las Meninas emerges as a self – referential artefact, continuously evolving in meaning through different epistemological and social frameworks.

CREATING WITH AI: ON RECENT DEBATES ABOUT AUTHORSHIP REVISITING THE INFLUENCE OF BARTHES AND FOUCAULT

CREATING WITH AI: ON RECENT DEBATES ABOUT AUTHORSHIP REVISITING THE INFLUENCE OF BARTHES AND FOUCAULT

Author(s): Iulia-Dana Pușcașu / Language(s): English / Issue: Sp.Issue/2024

Keywords: artificial intelligence; authorship; intention; the death of the author; author-function.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) models are now capable of producing artifacts that mimic human creation, such as visual art, text or music. The remarkable sophistication of these results reignited the debate on authorship, calling into question issues such as intent, originality, autonomy or aesthetic engagement. I will present and explain the main positions on authorship that have emerged from this questioning, drawing on Emanuele Arielli’s recent account in AI-aesthetics and the artificial author (2023). Furthermore, I will show how Roland Barthes’ The Death of the Author (1967) and Michel Foucault’s What is an Author? (1969) are central to understanding the philosophical implications of the debate and how conceptualisations pursued in these works inform current perspectives on authorship when AI is involved.

Against a romanticization of madness Part 1: Foucault and Derrida on “madness itself”

Against a romanticization of madness Part 1: Foucault and Derrida on “madness itself”

Author(s): Marcel Hosu / Language(s): English / Issue: 1&2/2024

Keywords: Foucault; Derrida; madness; cogito; meta-language;

The article contains a detailed outline of the Foucault-Derrida debate about the Cartesian cogito and the history of madness. The first part offers an in-depth analysis of the expression ‘madness itself’ and questions the prospect of the Foucauldian project as a whole but also highlights a certain inflationary tendency in Derrida’s critique of it. The article ultimately argues that the debate is centered around a series of vigorous yet fruitful misreadings which create a vast field of discussion where contemporary research can find valuable resources. The article paves the way toward the numerous perspectives which the debate has generated, which range from new forms of listening to madness to the redefinition of our medical and philosophical understanding of madness.

GNÓTHI SEAUTÓN/EPIMÉLEIA HEAUTOÚ: MICHEL FOUCAULT AND THE TWO PATHS OF WESTERN THOUGHT

GNÓTHI SEAUTÓN/EPIMÉLEIA HEAUTOÚ: MICHEL FOUCAULT AND THE TWO PATHS OF WESTERN THOUGHT

Author(s): Giuliana Gregorio / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2025

Keywords: Foucault; Subjectivity; Truth; Socrates; Descartes;

Although it is not possible to conceive of the history of Western thought as a continuous and linear (let alone progressive) process of development, some paths seem to have been historically dominant, while other possible developments, however potentially fruitful, seem to have turned out to be “interrupted paths”. This paper is concerned with the interpretation offered by Foucault in the early 1980s, according to which Socrates on the one hand and Descartes on the other would have opened up two discordant paths to the key relationship between subjectivity and truth. In both cases, the starting point is the maxim gnóthi seautón. In Socrates, however, it is linked to (and subordinated to) the question of epiméleia heautoú, which in Descartes’ case would disappear completely. The modern-Cartesian approach would thus lead to a purely theoretical-gnoseological-epistemological conception of philosophy, which would lose sight of the strong practical scope of Socratic discourse. Contrary to this interpretation, an attempt is made here to show that, in fact, even at the heart of Cartesian thought one can trace an all but secondary attention to the ethical-practical dimension of philosophy and, albeit in a modified form, to the principle of the necessary “care of the self”.