The impossibility of thinking certain things: analyzing the concept of episteme in Michel Foucault

• Main Author: Gonçalves, Daniel Luis Cidade
• Publication Date: 2018
• Format: Article
• Language: por
• Source: Argumentos : Revista de Filosofia (Online)
• Download full: http://periodicos.ufc.br/argumentos/article/view/39796
• topic: Thought. Episteme. Historical a priori. Analytical of finitude. Death of man.; Pensamento. Episteme. A priori histórico. Analítica da finitude. Morte do homem.

This article tries to understand, in Foucauldian terms, how it was possible, at some point in our history, think about certain things that until then seemed unthinkable. In his work The order of things the philosopher presents us with this problematic that we believe to encompass a large part of his writings, insofar as he claims that all his work seeks to understand the conditions of existence and possibility of thought. We believe that Foucault provides theoretical tools to deal with the fact that thought itself has a history and depends on it not only to be intelligible and understood as coherent but to exist. In order to better understand this problem, it is necessary to analyze the concept of episteme in its three formulations, but also the concepts of historical a priori, analytical of the finitude and death of man. From this, it will be possible to better understand the insertion of Foucaultian thought into a non-essentialist philosophical tradition, in which the coherence and very existence of our practices, beliefs, desires and thoughts depends on the existence of external and contingent conditions.