Genealogia jako krytyka: Habermas vs. Foucault

Abstract

Genealogy as critique: Habermas vs. Foucault The aim of this paper is to respond to the objections raised by Jürgen Habermas in his work The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity against Michel Foucault’s concept of genealogical critique. In my response I draw primarily on Foucault’s methodological texts and I demonstrate the strong connections of his ideas to the French historical epistemology of Gaston Bachelard and Georges Canguilhem. This connections concern mainly the ideas of the „recurrent method” and the „history of error” developed in this tradition. I argue that these ideas refute Habermas’ allegations against Foucault’s view of history (presentism) as well as his approach to the problem of truth (relativism). At the concluding part of my paper I focus on Foucault’s concept of freedom, emphasizing the practical and „anti‑romantic” character of this concept and its connection to the Marxian idea of emancipation (the objection of cryptonormativism).

Keywords

• Michel Foucault
• Jürgen Habermas
• social criticism
• genealogy
• archeology of knowledge