From phenomenology to archaeology. Foucault with—and against—Merleau‐Ponty
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21395065 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Philippe Sabot (0000-0002-0523-3781, Savoirs Textes Langage Université de Lille France, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Southern Journal of Philosophy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0038-4283 • E-ISSN: 2041-6962 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/sjp.70052 |
| OpenAlex | W7167272546 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 14 |
This article examines the complex and often ambiguous relationship Michel Foucault maintained with phenomenology through his dialogue with Maurice Merleau‐Ponty from the early 1950s to the mid‐1960s. The analysis delineates Foucault's progressive displacement from an internal questioning of phenomenology toward his major archaeological investigations. This confrontation unfolds in three stages. Initially, Foucault explores the notion of the “world,” identifying a constitutive “ambiguity” in Merleau‐Ponty's thought, which strives to produce a genesis of the transcendental based on lived experience, itself conceived as an experience of the world. The Birth of the Clinic engages then in critical debate with the Phenomenology of Perception . Foucault's approach diverges from the ontological foundation of lived experience by historicizing medical perception. Finally, in The Order of Things , Foucault situates phenomenology itself within an archaeological framework. He aligns with Merleau‐Ponty's diagnosis of a crisis in human sciences but denounces once again phenomenology's constitutive ambiguity—the confusion of empirical and transcendental—as the philosophical foundation of modern episteme's instability, crystallized in the “empirico‐transcendental doublet” of Man
Confusion · Interpretative phenomenological analysis · Lived experience · Michel foucault · Perception · Phenomenology (philosophy) · Transcendental number · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy · Philosophy and Social Theory
Young Foucault
Michel Foucault
Foucault et Merleau-Ponty
L'expérience, le savoir et l'histoire dans les premiers écrits de Michel Foucault
"Phenomenology and Anthropology in Foucault's "Introduction to Binswanger's Dream and Existence
La phénoménologie manquée de Foucault
L'archéologie du regard chez Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault in the 1950s
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |