The impossibility of thinking certain things: analyzing the concept of episteme in Michel Foucault

Authors

  • Daniel Luis Cidade Gonçalves

Keywords:

Thought. Episteme. Historical a priori. Analytical of finitude. Death of man.

Abstract

This article tries to understand, in Foucauldian terms, how it was possible, at some point in our history, think about certain things that until then seemed unthinkable. In his work The order of things the philosopher presents us with this problematic that we believe to encompass a large part of his writings, insofar as he claims that all his work seeks to understand the conditions of existence and possibility of thought. We believe that Foucault provides theoretical tools to deal with the fact that thought itself has a history and depends on it not only to be intelligible and understood as coherent but to exist. In order to better understand this problem, it is necessary to analyze the concept of episteme in its three formulations, but also the concepts of historical a priori, analytical of the finitude and death of man. From this, it will be possible to better understand the insertion of Foucaultian thought into a non-essentialist philosophical tradition, in which the coherence and very existence of our practices, beliefs, desires and thoughts depends on the existence of external and contingent conditions.

Author Biography

Daniel Luis Cidade Gonçalves

Doutor em Filosofia pela Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC).

References

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OKSALA, Johanna. Foucault on Freedom. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

______. Como ler Foucault. Tradução de Maria Luiza X. de A. Borges. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar Editor, 2011.

REVEL, Judith. Dicionário Foucault. Tradução de Anderson Alexandre da Silva. Rio de Janeiro: Forense Universitária, 2011.

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Published

2018-11-29

Issue

No. 20

Section

Artigos

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