The Same, the Other and the Limit

Abstract

Even a brief survey of the literature produced on Foucault’s work reveals an overwhelming interest in the question of how his work is to be classified. What ‘discipline’ can it be annexed to? What use can be made of it? What sections of the library can we find his books in? Alan Sheridan spells out quite well the kind of puzzlement a great many readers feel when they open Foucault’s books. He also spells out the reply of a certain kind of commentary: ‘Is he some kind of philosopher?’ ‘Well, yes in a way’, one answers. ‘Then why does he write not about Plato, Descartes and Kant, but about the history of madness and medicine, prisons and sexuality?’ ‘Well, he is more of a historian than a philosopher, though his approach to his material is very different from that of a historian.’ ‘Ah, a historian of ideas!’ ‘Well, no …. In fact it was to distinguish what he was doing from the history of ideas that he coined the term ‘archaeology of knowledge’.1 KeywordsHuman ScienceTraditional PhilosophyHistorical WritingLiterary StyleAnnales SchoolThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.