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Michel Foucault

Archaeology of Knowledge (World of Man) Paperback – June 1, 1974

French Edition by Michel Foucault (Author)

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In France, a country that awards its intellectuals the status other countries give their rock stars, Michel Foucault was part of a glittering generation of thinkers, one which also included Sartre, de Beauvoir and Deleuze. One of the great intellectual heroes of the twentieth century, Foucault was a man whose passion and reason were at the service of nearly every progressive cause of his time. From law and order, to mental health, to power and knowledge, he spearheaded public awareness of the dynamics that hold us all in thrall to a few powerful ideologies and interests. Arguably his finest work, The Archaeology of Knowledge is a challenging but fantastically rewarding introduction to his ideas.

Print length

245 pages
Language

French
Publisher

Tavistock Publications
Publication date

June 1, 1974
ISBN-10

0422758809
ISBN-13

978-0422758802
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4.5 out of 5

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The Archaeology of Foucault’s Archaeologies

Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2019

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Foucault’s Archaeology of Knowledge does not deserve its reputation for being so difficult that it is not even worth reading. Once one grasps Foucault’s project the text follows rather easily. I personally read it in two days with my nine year old’s tv shows as background noise. It can be done.

The key to understanding the text is to realize that Foucault could have called this book the Archaeology of Archaeology. Foucault has a distinctive method of tracing the undergirding of disciplines which he refers to as discourses. His earlier books examined these discourses by archaelogies of madness, medicine, what became the science of biology and other subjects. Now Foucault wants to, borrowing an overused term, perform a meta-analysis of what he is doing when he performs an archaeology. In other words what is a discourse, what are the rules governing its evolution and in what sense there is no evolution but disruption. A discourse about discourses.

I will not try to summarize Foucault’s account of the nature of discourses but only point out some of its features. Foucault is not interested in the conscious history of ideas but in the unconscious rules governing the discourse. A subject does not consist in truths waiting to be discovered. Any such “truths” are inseparable from the discourse that governs what can and cannot be broached, the criteria by which “truth” is determined, etc.

Foucault goes so far as to deny the commonly held idea that the world and its contents are fundamentally rational. I cannot follow him here but I can appreciate the brilliance with which it is articulated.

If you want to understand post-modernism and already have some understanding of Foucault’s archaeologies then read this book. For better or for worse, post-modernism is part of the contemporary academic landscape and it’s better to gain an understanding of it from Foucault than from shrill undergraduate protests. Ingenious, illuminating, delightful but ultimately pernicious. At least that is my opinion. Read it for yourself if you want to conclude otherwise.

38 people found this helpful

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Wayne P.

Great intro to Foucoult

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2014

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This volume is a great introduction to Foucoult's thought. As other reviewers have said, he takes ideas he broached in his earlier works and further develops them here. That said, this is not light reading. If you want just a quick distillation of Foucoult's ideas, you would do better looking elsewhere. Foucoult wants to make you think and think deeply about this whole concept called knowledge. In that he succeeds. The down side is that he has so many ideas in his head, he does not always connect the dots. You, the reader, will at times have to do that but Foucoult has given you enough substance that you can, if you are versed in the subject matter at all, do that well. The version I read was the Kindle version. Technically, that worked perfectly. I was able to easily highlight and take notes from the Kindle app on my iPad. My bottom line, if you want some serious reading that will force you to think, try this book. The Kindle version is, for me, a great choice.

15 people found this helpful

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Natalie

Fundamental Foucault

Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2012

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Foucault's Archeology of Knowledge builds the foundation of Foucault's work. Not an easy read but in my opinion essential in understanding the broader purpose of Foucault's earlier and later works. The work itself stands alone as an original approach to flushing out Truth and power relations. It draws heavily on others work (Nietzsche) but still is very unique (hence a lot of critics/scholars difficulty in attempts at categorizing Foucault).

8 people found this helpful

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V.A.Rao

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2019

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I was highly disappointed by the small print. Since it is an important book that I wanted to possess and use it for my work, I was a little irritated.

3 people found this helpful

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K. Sutton

Not worth it

Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2014

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First off, for those of you that have to read this book for a class-as I did, it's on Sparknotes. Not that Sparknotes will replace reading but it definitely helps explain what the book is saying (the class I had to read this for is a graduate level English class called "Rhetoric and Writing in Professional Communities" so my opinions may be slightly tainted by the fact that this reading has nothing to do with the class description and the fact that the professor offered no help in deciphering it).

That being said, Foucault has a tendency to express simple ideas in the most complicated manner possible. For example (I would typically say "spoiler alert" here but it's not like this is a novel) Foucault argues that grammar is a man made idea following man made rules. Perfectly simple, and not exactly revolutionary, idea. To further this point, Foucault breaks grammar rules which ultimately makes it difficult to understand the point he is trying to get across. So, he used grammar to make his point but his point was lost within the grammar.

In my opinion, Foucault's ideas are not revolutionary and not worth the hassle of trying to decipher his writing.

10 people found this helpful

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April YU

Good

Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2017

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Good! Quite new~ essential book for analyzing foucault, especially his methodology

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etienne

... that shows some of the mind of the incredibly smart Foucault.

Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2016

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A book for the "really"smart that shows some of the mind of the incredibly smart Foucault.

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50210

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2015

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Awesome edition, tho, not the one shown in the posting. Good timing on shipping.

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Top reviews from other countries

Judy Scully

Use value to students

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 11, 2023

Verified Purchase

Really useful for understanding Foucault's work on discourse

Lawrence M.

Whoa!

Reviewed in India on May 13, 2019

Verified Purchase

Book quality seems good. Isn't a pirated version. Yet to re-read it from my last read more than a decade ago!

One person found this helpful

pratima bala

but that is good, the book provokes me to think

Reviewed in India on January 5, 2017

Verified Purchase

It is a slow read for me, but that is good, the book provokes me to think

Dripta

Slanted Printing

Reviewed in India on March 30, 2021

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I do not have any complain with the content of this book whatsoever (I can review it on Goodreads or something), nor have I any problem with the page quality. I assume from the page quality that it was not pirated, but the printing on the pages itself is not aligned properly. I do not know what to do with it since it is not really a hindrance on the way to read the book. Also I hope that the cover of the book was printed on a slightly better page.

I do not know, I have seen this thing on many other 'Vintage' books, the books are priced above average anyway. The readers expect a little bit better printing and covers while going through a book.

3 people found this helpful

Quasain Qureshi

Bad condition

Reviewed in India on April 1, 2021

Verified Purchase

The book that I received looks old and is not in agood condition. Extremely disappointed.

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Archaeology of Knowledge (World of Man) Paperback – June 1, 1974

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