From the historical a priori to the dispositif

Foucault, the phenomenological legacy, and the problem of transcendental genesis

Kevin Thompson

pp. 41-54

in: Andreea Aldea, Amy Allen (eds), Historical a priori in Husserl and Foucault, Continental Philosophy Review 49 (1), 2016.

Abstract

What philosophical motivations lay behind the emergence of the genealogical method in Foucault's thought? Pace traditional interpretations, I argue that genealogy is best construed as a supplementary addition to the archaeological mode of investigation. It addresses an issue that arose within the problematic to which the archaeological method responds, but which that method was not designed to solve: the problem of "transcendental genesis" as this issue was defined within the unique parameters set forth by the French phenomenological tradition.

Cited authors

Foucault Michel