THE PHILOSOPHY OF MICHEL FOUCAULT: FROM ARCHAEOLOGY TO GENEALOGY, FROM STRUCTURALISM TO POSTSTRUCTURALISM

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2022-12

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Ülker, Cenk

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The question of whether Foucault can be considered a structuralist or a poststructuralist philosopher has led to various interpretations among Foucault scholars. On the one hand, the Foucault scholars reading his archaeological method from a poststructuralist perspective argue that Foucault aimed to diagnose the present from the beginning of his archaeological period in order to understand what the present day is. On the other hand, some argue that Foucault cannot be called a structuralist because he is concerned with specific discursive formations whose truth value is relative to a particular historical period and culture. Furthermore, the Foucauldian methodological change from archaeology to genealogy has been an ongoing debate based on such explanations of from discursivity to nondiscursivity, from knowledge to power and knowledge, or an isolable domain of knowledge to non-isolable domains of knowledge and power. This study aims to ascertain the accuracy of scholars’ interpretations as to whether Foucault can be called a structuralist or a poststructuralist. In the end, this thesis has significance in contributing a new interpretation to the discussion among Foucault scholars; it also serves the purpose of a better understanding of Michel Foucault’s philosophy by treating the Foucauldian archaeological and genealogical methods in their terms.

Subject Keywords

Michel Foucault, structuralism, poststructuralism, archaeology, genealogy

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https://hdl.handle.net/11511/101244

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Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

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Citation Formats

C. Ülker, “THE PHILOSOPHY OF MICHEL FOUCAULT: FROM ARCHAEOLOGY TO GENEALOGY, FROM STRUCTURALISM TO POSTSTRUCTURALISM,” M.A. - Master of Arts, Middle East Technical University, 2022.