Michel Foucault's anti-ontologies

Abstract

The works of 20th century French philosopher-historian Michel Foucault often operate in two areas. On the one hand, Foucault's works are histories that operate through specific structures of investigation. On the other, most of these works make a handful of remarks that are, if not methodological, then at the very least, theoretical and which provide a framework for the historical research conducted. Much of the secondary literature written about Foucault's work takes one of two directions at this juncture. On one side, the content of the historical investigations is often used to either support or question either the theoretical remarks or the structure of the investigations themselves. On the other side, the secondary literature often takes these theoretical comments, which are often sparse in both occurrence and detail, and elaborates upon these as the keys to the structure of the historical investigations and even Foucault's thought itself. This thesis will attempt to mediate between the structure of the historical investigations and the theoretical pronouncements made by Foucault. Theoretical comments will be measured against the structure of the historical investigations, giving them their specific weight; the historical investigations will be measured against the theoretical comments in order to highlight their specific structure. This is an important process for assessing Foucault's works precisely because of the distance that often separates the structure of the investigations from the theoretical comments. However, due to the greater weight given in Foucault's oeuvre to historical investigations and the structures that they employ, as evidenced by their quantity and rigour, our examination of a number of his works will pursue more closely these structures of historical investigation. What we find through our examination is that Foucault's works display an anti-ontology visible throughout the variations in their structure. This thesis will attempt to describe these approaches from The Order of Things to The Use of Pleasure and The Care of the Self. Show more