Michel Foucault’s Archaeology of Scientific Reason

317 Pages·1989·29.31 MB·English

by  Gary Gutting

Modern
European
Philosophy
Michel Foucault's
archaeology of scientific reason
Gary Gutting
MICHEL FOUCAUL T'S
ARCHAEOLOGY
OF SCIENTIFIC REASON
GARY GUTTING
Unίveπity of Notτe Dame
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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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MODERN EUROPEAN PHILOSOPHY
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ΗΙDέ ISHIGURO, BARNARD COLLEGE
ALAN MONTEFIORE, BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD
MARY TILES, ROYAL INSTITUTE OF PHILOSOPHY
R. Μ. Chisholm, Brentano arιd lntrirιsic Value
Raymond Geιιss, The Jdea of α Critical Theory:
Habermas and tlιe Frarιkfurt School
Karel Lambert, Meinong and the Principle of Jndependence
Charles Taylor, Hegel and Modern Society
Mary Tiles, Bachelard: Science and Objectivity
Robert S. Tragesser, Husserl and Realism in Logic and Matlιematics
Peter Winch, Simone Weil: The just Balance
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© Cambridge Uniνersity Press ι989
First published ιg89
Printed ίη the United States of America
Lί/πασ of Congre.5.1' Catalogιng-ιn-Pιιblicatίon Data
Gutting, Gary.
Miclιel ~·oucault's archaeology of scientific rc<Ison I (~ar~· Gutting.
p. cm. - (Modern Euroρean ρhilosophy)
ISBN 0-521-3fifiι9-4· ISBN 0-52ι-36698-4 (pbk.)
ι. ~"<>uc<Iult, Michel-Contributions in archaeology οι· scientific
reason. 2. Science-Philosophy-History-2oth century. 3· Social
sciences-Philosophy-History-2oth ccntury. Ι. Title.
rι Series.
B24;10.F724C•87 ιg8g
ι94-dcιg 88-3ι88ι
CIP
Rrίtish Lίbτary C:ataloguίng in Puhlicatι:ωι Data
Gutting, Gary
Michel f"oucault's archaeology ο!' scientitic
reason. - (Modern European philosophy)
ι. French philosophy, Foucault, Michel, ιg26-ι984
ι Title Ι ι Series
ι94
ΙSΒΝ ο 52 ι 366ιg 4 hard coνers
ISBN ο 521 36fig8 4 papcrback
Part of Chapter ι was published as "(;aston Bachel<Ird's philosophy οι· science"
ίη lnternalional .)tudieό ίn Plιilωoplιy of $cίen.ce 2 (ι g87) anιl is reprinted ν•ith
permission of Routlege and Kegan Paul. Part of Chapter 6 was included ίη
"Michel f'oucault and the Hisιory of Reason," published ίη Ernan Mι·Mullin,
ed., (:oιιstπιction anri constraίnt: the .l'hapίng of scίen.tίfic τationalίty, ιg88, and is
reprinted "'ith perιnission of the Uniνersity of Notl'e Dame Press.
Το
ANASTASIA
τn καλλίστη
CONTENTS
Preface page ίχ
Introduction
Bachelard and Canguilhem 9
Bachelard's philosophy of science 12
Reason and science
Bachelard's model οΓ scientific change
The epistemological and metaphysical ramifications
of Bachelard's model 22
Canguilhem's history οΓ science 32
Canguilhem's conception of' the history of science 32
Canguilhem's conception οΓ norms 45
Foucault and the Bachelard-Canguilhem network 52
2 Madness and mental illness 55
Early writings on mental illness 55
Madness in the Classical Age 6g
Mental illness and the asylum 87
The voice of madness 95
The hωory of madness: methods and results 100
3 Clinίcal medίcίne I I I
Classical ΠΊedicine 112
Α new medical consciousness 11 s
The clinic as aπ institution 1 ι8
νιι
Vlll
The linguistic structure of ιnedical signs ι~ο
The probabilistic structure uf medical cases
ι22
Seeing and saying 124
Anatomo-clinical ιnedicine 127
The birtlι of tlι.e ι.Ζίnίc: nιethuds and results 133
4 The order of thίngs: Ι. From resemblance to
representation
The Renaissance episteιne
Classical urder
Classical signs ancl language
c:Ιassical knowledge
c;eneral grarnπιar
Natural history
Analysis of wealth
The cummun stι-uctuι-e of tlιe c:Ιassical dunιains
Cι-itical reactions
5 The order of thίngs: Π. The rise and fall of man ι 8 ι
The modern episteme ι 8 ι
Philosophy ι 84
Modern empirical sciences ι 86
ιanguage aπd ιnoderπ thought ι 95
Man and the analytic of finitιιde ι g8
~he human sciences 208
The ordeτ of things: methods and results 2 ι 7
6 The archaeology of knowledge 227
The elements of archaeology 23 ι
Statements 239
Archaeology and the histury of ideas 244
Archaeology and the histury uf science 249
Discourse and the nondiscursive 256
Conclusion 260
7 Reason and philosophy 26 ι
Arch;ιeolugic·al ιnethod ancl Foucault's philusuρhical
project 262
Is Foucault's critique of reason self-refuting? 272
Conclusion 287
Biblίof:ζωplιy
lnιlex
PREFACE
Any study of Michel Foucault should anticipate two sorts of read
ers. On the one hand, there are those intrigued by what they have
heard of his ideas and methods but frustrated by texts they find
too difficult to penetrate. They turn to secondary literature to
dispel their bemusement and conf'usion. Ο η the other hand, there
are those who have worked through at least some of his books
with undeι-standing and appreciation and are looking for fuι-ther
interpretative and critical perspectives. In writing this book, Ι
have tried to keep both audiences in mind. Ι have put a very high
premium on lucid and thorough explanations ofFoucault's ideas,
and my analyses offer coherent interpretations of each work as a
whole, contrary to the tendency of many commentators to high
light only selected aspects of a given text. Because of this, Ι hope
the book will be a useful resource for those making a first ap
proach to Foucault's thought. Fοι- those already familiar with
Foucault, it offers a new perspective that places his thought in the
context of recent French history and philosophy of science, par
ticularly the work of Gaston Bachelard and Geoι-ges Canguilhem.
(It also prcvides an intι-oduction to these two thinkers, who are
not very well known in English-speaking countries.) This opens
up a fι-esh and, Ι hope to show, Γruitful waγ of understanding
Foucault as a historian and philosopher of science, balancing a11d
ι χ
χ PREFACE
complemeπtiπg the curreπt staπdard coπstrual of him as a social
critic aπd theorist.
Το date, most studies of Foucault have rightly takeπ the form
of iπtroductory surveys of the eπtire body of his work, aimiπg at
a compreheπsive prelimiπary uπderstaπdiπg of his maiπ claims,
motiνatioπs, aπd methods. Here Alaπ Sheridaπ's Foucault: The
will to truth probably remaiπs the best siπgle overall guide, al
though there is clearly a πeed for aπ updated aπd improved
geπeral iπtroductioπ. More receπtly, there have appeared a πum­
ber of studies with πarrower iπterpretative aπd critical foci, most
πotably Dreyfus aπd Rabiπow's Michel Foucault: beyond structural
ism and hermeneutic.5 aπd Johπ Rajchmaπ's Michel Foucault and the
Ireedom of philosophy. These, like almost all more specialized work
οπ Foucault over the last few years, are primarily coπcerπed with
the theme of the iπtercoππectioπ of power aπd kπowledge that
was Foucault's οwπ primary emphasis duriπg the 1970s. There
are sigπs that the πext wave of Foucault aπalysis will focus οπ the
ethical directioπ his work took iπ the ιg8os. By coπtrast, this
book turπs back to the earlier, explicitly archaeological period of
Foucault's writiπgs. Ι have choseπ this emphasis ποt oπly because
these writiπgs have beeπ relatively πeglected iπ receπt discus
sioπs but also because they are both difficult aπd importaπt
eπough to warraπt much closer scrutiπy thaπ they have yet re
ceived. Moreover, beyoπd their great iπtriπsic importaπce, they
are crucial for aπ adequate uπderstaπdiπg of Foucault's later
developmeπt. As we shall see, some major elemeπts of the later
kπowledge-power theme are implicit from the begiππiπg of Fou
cault's work; aπd the archaeological approach to the history of
thought remaiπs a key elemeπt iπ the later geπealogical method.
Without dowπgradiπg the value aπd distiπctiveπess of the work
after ΑΚ,1 Ι waπt to call atteπtioπ to the importaπce of the pre
cediπg archaeological period.
Ιπ additioπ to πumerous specific poiπts of iπterpretatioπ aπd
evaluatioπ, my aπalysis of Foucault's archaeology will support
three more geπeral coπclusioπs. First, archaeology is ποt aπ iso
lated method reflectiπg Foucault's idiosyπcratic approach to the
history of thought. Rather, it is rooted ίπ the Freπch traditioπ of
history aπd philosophy of science aπd is specifically developed ίπ
the context of Gastoπ Bachelard's philosophy of science and
ι. See lisι of abbreviaιions, p. χίί.
PREFACE ΧΙ
through an extension and transformation οΓ GeoΓges Canguil
hem's history of science.
Second, Foucault's archaeology is essentially grounded in his
torical practice rather than philosophical theory. It is a method of
historical analysis that was forged, pragmatically and piecemeal,
to deal with specific pΓOblems posed by the history of thought.
Foucault did not develop it as the corollary of fundamental philo
sophical views about language, meaning, and truth. This is not to
deny that his historical work has a philosophical intent or that
philosophica\ issues are frequently in the background of his dis
cussions. But his archaeological method oΓiginates primarily
from concrete struggles for historical understanding, not from
prior philosophical commitments. This understanding of archae
ology is closely linked to Foucault's radical reconception of the
philosophi~al enterprise. He rejects the traditional goal of ulti
mate, fundamental Truth and instead constrιιes philosophy as an
instrument for realizing concrete and local objectives in the strug
gle for human liberation.
Third, J<'oucault's archaeology is not, as critics have often main
tained, an engine of universal skepticism or relativism, under
mining all pretensions to truth and objectivity. The project of
archaeological analysis does not, ίη itself, question the objectivity
or validity of a body of knowledge to which it is applied. There is
no reason, for example, to think that an archaeology of modern
physics or chemistry would have an epistemically subversive in
tent or effect. MoreoνeΓ, as we shall see, even Foucault's analyses
of the much more dubious medical and social scientific disci
plines typically allow them a substantial core of objective truth.
Properly understood, archaeology is a technique for revealing
how a discipline has developed noΓms of validity and objectivity,
not for questioning the very possibility of any such norms. Ar
chaeology may, of course, find that some disciplines are far less
scientific than their own self-understanding sιιggests. Βιιt we
shall see that, even ίη such cases, it is designed as a careΓul
sσιιtίηy of the epistemic claims οΓ a discipline, not as an a priori
instrument for rejecting these claims.
The book begins with a brief introduction that formιιlates Fou
caιιlt's Γundamental historicophilosophical pΓOject and quickly
surveys the whole of his work as carrying out this project. Chap
ter ι provides some necessary backgroιιnd on Bachelard and
Canguilhem and on Foιιcault's connection to them. We then tιιrn
to a detailed exegesis οΓ the main books Foιιcaιιlt published