MICHEL FOUCAULT, info.

I think Emmanuel hits the mark.

The same question was discussed in Holland some 
twenty years ago. The Dutch translation 
<uitspraak> (= German <Aussage>) has the same judicial connotations.
The problem is that Foucault does not mention 
that connotations at all in the Archeology of 
Knowledge. He is completely fixed on the linguistic meaning there.
From the point of view of History  <énoncé> is 
in my opinion equivalent to <évenement>.

yours

machiel karskens


At 17:11 18-9-2007, you wrote:
> énoncé : dans la langue de la procédure 
> judiciaire, action d'énoncer, fait d'énoncer. 
> Synonyme usuel : énonciation. (Trésor de la langue française)
>
> My bloody translation :
>
> "énoncé" : in the language of judicial 
> procedure, the act(*) or the fact of enouncing something.
>
> (*) The Trésor even says "action" : so you see 
> fraçois, Foucault didn't introduce the notion of 
> "activity" : it was already in place.
>
> ("énoncer"'s meanigs range from "utter" to 
> "express", "speak out", "say", "make (publicly) 
> known", "declare (formally) ) - the latter being 
> precisely the one at stake, here, I guess).
>
> Implicit to the meanig of "fact of enouncing 
> something" are the notions that the "fact" in 
> question has to be "take into account" 
> (acknowledged but also registered, recorded and 
> reported), and that the thing being enounced is 
> actually being enounced by an authorized source 
> - if not a source of authority.
>
> In French we use the term most usually in 
> phrases such as "l'énoncé d'un jugement / d'un 
> verdict" (it belongs to the same constellation 
> as "verdict" or "avow", another terms in which 
> Foucault breathed a new life), "l'énoncé d'un 
> théorème ou d'un problème" - i.e. in french 
> "énoncé" is a master's thing - be it a master of 
> truth (savant, doctor, master, teacher, etc.) or 
> a master of jutice.  The very history of the 
> term connects "véridiction" to "juridiction".
>
> This use of the term (the one quoted high above) 
> is the first listed by the Trésor de la langue 
> française - it's also (not coincindentally, I 
> suspect) the closest use to Foucault's own one 
> ("the fact that something is being / has been 
> said, in that it constitutes an event, itself 
> constitutive of a practice" - a ritual, a 
> procedure, etc. - sorry, can't sum it up better at present) I could found.
>
> The notion that "énociation" is linked to 
> authority has long been ingrained in roman 
> languages : Benveniste had it that the latin 
> dicere's primary use was as a "vocable 
> d'institution", and that, as suc, it meant 
> something like " showing through words and with 
> authority whast has to be or be done".
>
> So one (someone pretty bold) could say that 
> Foucault somewhat generalized the notion : the 
> "énoncé" does not have to come necessarily from 
> a position of authority for "énonciation"  to 
> take place in a complex system of power relationships.
>
> Sorry for the broken english.
>
> Emmanuel.
>
>
>
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Prof. Machiel Karskens
social and political philosophy
Faculty of Philosophy
Radboud University Nijmegen - The Netherlands