Re: undergrad texts

I think that the _Archaeology_ is Foucault's unsuccessful attempt to codify
what he was doing. It is vague on some of the most important
theoretical/methodological issues of his work, e.g. the definition of the
"statement". He says what it is not, but never exactly what it is.

_Discipline and Punish_ and _The Order of Things_ are better. Also, for
undergrads, the elusive but interesting essay "What is Enlightenment?" and
some of the essays contained in the volume _Power/Knowledge_.

Rob

At 09:34 AM 1/5/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>
>On Sun, 4 Jan 1998, Clare O'Farrell wrote:
>
>> Eric Angel mentions that it was Discipline and Punish and The History of
>> Sexuality that first got him interested in Foucault. For me it was two
>> texts - the first 'The Situation of Cuvier in the history of biology'
>> followed by _The Archaeology_ I thought the Archaeology was a wonderful
>> book - it was certainly the one that got me thoroughly hooked on Foucault.
>
>Speaking of which: a while ago, I read a book (can't remember which;
>maybe Megill, but I don't think so) which claimed that AK must be
>read as a parody of Descartes's _Discourse on Method_: that if you read
>it straight, you just don't get it. Personally, I don't much see the
>connection (and anyway I'm inclined to agree with Rorty that AK is
>Foucault's "least successful book"). Comments?
>
>Matthew
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------
>"There is but one truly important philosophical problem,
> and that is suicide." (Albert Camus, _The Myth of Sisyphus_)
>----------------------------------------------------------------
>Matthew A. King - Department of Philosophy - McMaster University
>
>
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