This study looks out over Foucault's works into writing the history of truth, and inquires their practical meaning. Generally, Foucault's works are classified into archaeological works early and geneological works latterly. Here, this study focuses ...
This study looks out over Foucault's works into writing the history of truth, and inquires their practical meaning. Generally, Foucault's works are classified into archaeological works early and geneological works latterly. Here, this study focuses on Foucault's archaeological works early and understands his geneological works as the outcome of his archaeological works, then examines their practical implication. In the concrete, this is tried that shows how Foucault's archaeological works are drawn to the conclusion of the history of truth, and how he changes traditional plan of practice when we understands that conclusion of his archaeological works with his geneological works.
To traditional philosophers criticism is primarily done from the dimension of cognition, which means, it has been shown to have used as a tool to determine whether a thing is right or wrong. This dimension of cognition consequently foreshadows the discretion of right or wrong, and this discretion becomes the aim and purpose of practice. However, to Foucault, criticism is not done in this way. This Foucault's criticism work can be clearly defined by looking into which philosophical work Foucault‘s philosophical plan has started, and how that is drawn to criticism through historical studies in what their aim. Foucault sets his works in the tradition of 'the critical ontology on the present and on ourselves.’ The goal of the critical ontology on the present and on ourselves is to practice freedom lined from the task of an enlightenment as the 'criticism and revolution'. Under this tradition, Foucault’s philosophical task is also on the practice of freedom through the practice of 'the critique on the present and on ourselves'.
Under the such criticism plan, Foucault's interest is on 'thought'. Foucault tries to write the history of thought using a follow-up method of people's way of thought in a real life. This is to say that Foucault draws out philosophical research to a historical way, however, he introduces 'discontinuity' to history and follows a different method from that of primary historical work. Here, Foucault has named 'archaeology’ to the method applied to writing the history of thought in categories of discontinuity. The history of Foucault's thought using the method of archaeology appears as 'the history of systems of thought'. Foucault has marked this 'system of thought' as 'historical a priori.’ In other words, the system of thought allows to show our experience in that way which becomes the condition of experience, however, that is not our cognitive internal structure, but our external cognition. In other words, it is the condition comes from experience and that it confronts changes historically.
Foucault's history about the system of thought written by using the method of archaeology is formed through the concrete analysis of discussions. The method Foucault deals to analyze discussions fundamentally differs from that of primary. If primary analysis of discussions is to say that it considers discussions as a whole and tries to analyze the effect or meanings of it, Foucault has doubted in the first place that a discussion is a whole, and tried to research how one set of discussions reveals as a whole. Thus, the analysis of discussion Foucault practices is no other than 'discursive formations'. As practising the analysis of the formation of discussions, Foucault discovers that one set of discussions comes from a series of a rule dispersed between each elements that consist of it, and reveals as a whole. Here, 'episteme’ which Foucault explains as a series of a rule means the system of thought which people sets conditions of all sorts of experiences in a certain space time.
Although Foucault's archaeological work is revealed consequently as the analysis of the system of thought by means of a series of a rule in the formation of discussions, the goal of Foucault's archaeological work is not to set the system of thought by means of the whole condition for people's experiences and practices shown in a certain space time. The goal of archaeological work Foucault practices is to research the method of all sorts of practices revealed from the point of 'savior’, especially through the practising process of constructing scientific knowledge in the exercise of 'savoir'.Looking into the process of the formation of scientific knowledge from the point of savoir, Foucault finds out that truth changes through an experience. The concept of a truth being changed through an experience overthrows the traditional concept of truth which is absolute and universal, meaning truth itself owns history. From this, we figure that the perspective of Foucault's archaeological work is in writing of 'the history of truth'.
This Foucault's archaeological work which meets with the geneological work that thought the present in a different way and tries to bring about changes of the present, Foucault‘s historical-criticism throws critical questions about the critical ontology on the present and on ourselves and trials to find other possibilities in the present in his philosophical plan is thrown into shape. Here, what this study is focusing on is that Foucault makes a change the traditional relation of our recognition and our practice. Through this understanding about Foucault' works, we appreciate that all work by Foucault, from his archaeological works to his geneological works, throws skeptical questions to the truth which limits and classifies us on the pretext of universality and inevitability, and tries to prepare an experimental place to test our possibilities.