Michel Foucault: A Contemporary Skeptic

Abstract

This paper intends to discuss the anti-epistemological proposal in Michel Foucault’s philosophy. The main reference are the conferences given by this French philosopher at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in 1973, in which discursive production of truth is linked to judicial practices of domination and control. From that approach, many problematic consequences are identified under the contemporary interpretation of philosophical scientific questions, regarding specially the annullment of any intrinsic relationship between meaning and validityof truth. Due to this perspective, inspired by Nietzsche, discursive production is reduced to an epiphenomenon of the will of power and social practices.

Keywords

• anti-epistemology
• discursive practices
• philosophy of sciences.