The figures of the cogito

Foucault, Derrida and the possibility of transcendental phenomenology

Bibliographic Data

ID21395039
AuthorsChangyuan Chen (0009-0004-2303-5035, Institut für Transzendentalphilosophie und Phänomenologie, University of Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany, corresponding author)
Year2026
Publication date2026-06-05
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Southern Journal of Philosophy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-4283 • E-ISSN: 2041-6962
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/sjp.70049
OpenAlexW7163693782
LanguageEN
References cited18

This article examines the early Foucault as a reader of Husserl, a frequently overlooked dimension of his thought that nonetheless paved the way for the Foucault we recognize today. Drawing on his recently published manuscripts on phenomenology, it reconstructs the distinctive interpretation of phenomenology that the young Foucault was developing. Influenced by Heidegger and Fink, he sought to understand the transcendental cogito along a non‐Cartesian path, thereby opening up phenomenology to ontological possibilities. Viewed through a Hegelian lens, he refused to confine phenomenology to mere descriptive analysis; instead, by tracing the interplay between the transcendental and the historical, he articulated a speculative orientation that characterized phenomenology as a “rationalism of being”. The article concludes by revisiting the cogito debate between Derrida and Foucault, revealing an unexpected proximity between the two philosophers

Apophantic · Cogito ergo sum · Hegelianism · Phenomenology (philosophy) · Transcendental number · Transcendental philosophy · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism

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