MICHEL FOUCAULT, info.

My appreciation of these things, in a very synthetic manner:

1. Archaeology: the historical study of discursive formations.

2. Genealogy: the historical study of the practices by and through 
which these discursive formations are produced and reproduced (given 
that they are never completely frozen).

3. Foucault wrote in The order of discourse that these were only 
heuristically distinguishable, since in the actual historical 
investigation you cannot understand one dimension without studying the 
other.

4. In my understanding, these are modes of investigation mobilized to 
realize different historical studies of 'what we are today' (or 
historical ontology).

François





Le 05-11-29, à 17:35, Kevin Turner a écrit :

> it is quite a while since i have posed a question to the list, and a 
> lot of new people have joined since then. so, i would first like to 
> say hello and welcome.
>
> i have been reading a number of texts by foucault which discuss kant's 
> reflections on enlightenment and revolution, and have also been 
> reading some secondary commentary - by gordon, dean, and so on - which 
> discuss these texts by foucault. this has left me somewhat confused, 
> and my confusion runs as follows:
>
> does foucault use the phrase "historical ontology" as a kind of 
> synonym for genealogy; or are archaeology and genealogy the method and 
> design of historical ontology. to put the question slightly 
> differently, what is the relationship between archaeology and 
> genealogy on the one hand, and historical ontology on the other?
>
> regards - kevin.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------
> laid by the gate at the foot of the garden my view stretches out from 
> the fence to the wall
> no words could explain no action determine just watching the trees and 
> the leaves as they fall
> (Ian Curtis)
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> Foucault-L mailing list
François