Continuities and Discontinuities in Foucault’s Work

This shift is evident in a course summary he gave at the College de France, where he proposed that empirical studies have allowed for the identification of discursive practices and their unique characteristics. He referred to these studies as the "archaeology" and believed that further studies on the "will to knowledge" would provide theoretical justification for previous investigations. These later studies on the "will of knowledge" refer to Foucault's works on punishment and imprisonment (Discipline and Punish) and sexuality (The history of Sexuality).

In the text referenced above, Foucault succinctly explains his shift from The Archaeology of Knowledge to Discipline and Punish, with a sense of continuity between the two works that relates to the interplay between discursive and non-discursive domains. This interplay is embodied in the pursuit of knowledge, influenced by a Nietzschean view that knowledge is an invention hiding deeper instincts, impulses, fears, and desires. Knowledge is produced through the struggle of these elements on a stage. This transition also brings about a shift towards genealogical analysis and away from archaeological analysis in Foucault’s work.

Despite appearing to take a backseat to genealogy, archaeology remained present in Foucault's analyses and served as a complementary methodology for analyzing local discursivities. Continuities and links between Foucault's articulations of archaeology and genealogy undermine the notion of a categorical break or change in direction. Science is not given special priority in either approach; however, a shift occurs where a more committed position questions and critiques the power effects associated with scientific hierarchization of knowledge. Both approaches share a conception of history where dispersion, disparity, difference, and division are the historical beginnings of things, rather than a singular

point or moment of origin.

The Archaeology of Knowledge by Foucault introduces a distinct approach to analyzing knowledge that does not focus on the history of sciences. Instead, it anticipates a different structure of analysis. Foucault proposes an agenda that considers the potential for an archaeological description of "sexuality."

Foucault criticizes the traditional method of studying the sexual behavior of men in a given period and describing their interpretations of sexuality. Instead, he suggests exploring how discursive practices shape these behaviors and representations, treating sexuality as a group of objects that can be talked about or prohibited. Through such an archaeological approach, one can unveil a certain "way of speaking" that is embedded not in scientific discourses but in systems of prohibition and values. Aiming to depart from conventional forms of theory, Foucault's subsequent studies on sexuality would employ elements of this approach and pave the way for an alternative method – genealogy. In his essay "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History," Foucault differentiates his work from traditional history and acknowledges Nietzsche's role in inspiring a radical conception of historical analysis through genealogy.The concept of historical analysis used in genealogy opposes the search for the origin of things because doing so causes an attempt to capture the essence of things and results in seeing the moment of origin as the pinnacle of development. Genealogy exposes the differences and scattering within the constructed identity of origin, which portrays historical beginnings as humble, and establishes that the proliferation of errors occurred early. (In D.)

In Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews by Michel Foucault (edited by F. Bouchard, Blackwell Oxford 1977), genealogy refers to the examination of historical lineage, rejecting

the consistent and stable forms that traditional history focuses on. Its aim is to uncover the intricate, fragile, and arbitrary aspects of historical events. Foucault initially identified the body as genealogy's primary object of study - the seemingly natural and physiological entity. By examining the interplay between the body and history, this analytical focal point demonstrates that nothing is static, and even our physiology is subject to the influence of historical forces. Genealogy's goal is to highlight the historical nature of traits and features that have been overlooked or assumed to be without a past.

Another aspect that genealogy proposes is the affirmation of "knowledge as perspective." This involves a method of historical analysis that rejects the existence of universals or constants that provide a stable basis for understanding. Consequently, it brings forth a concept of discontinuity in the commonly assumed aspects of life and nature. Additionally, genealogy concentrates on events and their unique features and expressions, not as predetermined outcomes but as a result of power relations and their unanticipated outcomes.

On the one hand, genealogy offers a historical analysis that acknowledges the importance of knowledge, an idea that can be traced back to Foucault's identification of the boundaries of archaeological knowledge. Despite not making any claims to scientificity, the matter of science is addressed as both archaeology and genealogy are related to the field of science, with their objects of analysis and methods of inquiry differing but still intersecting. While archaeology distinguishes itself from scientific investigation in aspects such as its level and domain of analysis, it may touch upon some issues already examined by particular scientific fields. For instance, "in seeking to define,

outside all reference to a psychological or constituent subjectivity, the different positions of the subject that may be involved in statements, archaeology touches on a question that is being posed today by psychoanalysis” (The Archaeology of Knowledge, p 207). On the other hand, genealogy may not be as evident in its examination of science or specific human and social sciences as it is with its analysis of discipline and punishment - an investigation that discusses not only the emergence of human sciences but also the inception of prisons.

Foucault's work evolved from archaeology to genealogy, leading to a critique of his own methods. While some studies like those examining medical perception or epistemology were seen as archaeological investigations, others such as political technologies and human sexuality were considered genealogical analyses. The development of new concepts in the 1970s did not strictly divide earlier and later writings but shifted emphasis towards institutions, social practices, technologies of power and the self, and their relationships with forms of knowledge - the interface between non-discursive and discursive practices (genealogy).

Foucault's work indicates a change in the priorities of analysis concerning the preconditions of existence of the human sciences. The archaeological investigations focus on uncovering the unconscious rules that govern discourse formation in the human sciences. Conversely, genealogical analyses expose the emergence of the human sciences and their conditions of existence, including specific technologies of power embedded within social practices. The transition from archaeology to genealogy requires a shift in Foucault's perspective, moving from relative detachment seen in The Archaeology of Knowledge to a commitment to critique observable in his post-1970 writings where he opposes the scientific hierarchy of knowledge and

its intrinsic power effects.

When examining Foucault's work, it is important to take into account both archaeological investigation and genealogical analysis. This question phrases it as the combination of archaeology as the method and geology as the tactic. References for further reading include Michel Foucault's selected essays and interviews in "Language, Counter-Memory, Practice" edited by D. F. Bouchard, "The Archaeology of Knowledge", and "Discipline and Punish" edited by Barry Smart in 2002, and "Foucault, Marxism and Critique" by Barry Smart in 1983 from Routledge ; Kegan Paul.