Indeed. And could it have been otherwise? The study of discursive
practices was a way to get to how «realities» are informed, how they
are produced through historically constituted practices. For example
(they are missing, apparently), how individuals were produced as
criminals since the nineteenth century through a prison and judiciary
system relying on social sciences to know them. It would have been a
very strange thing to do to say that an énoncé has an existence
independent of its own discursive (historical) practice. It would have
been a bold strategy to substract it form questionning, but it woud
also have been quite at odds with the ethos of his work.
François
Le 07-09-17, à 15:48, Jean-François Mongrain a écrit :
François
Le 07-09-17, à 15:48, Jean-François Mongrain a écrit :
Hi,
This function of existence only exist in an ''Archive'' which is defined as
an history of practices.
"On a affaire maintenant à un volume complexe, où se
différencient des régions hétérogènes, et où se déploient, selon
des règles spécifiques, des pratiques qui ne peuvent se
superposer. Au lieu de voir s'aligner, sur le livre de l'histoire
mythique de l'histoire, des mots qui traduisent en caractères
visibles des pensées constituées avant et ailleurs, on a, dans
l'épaisseur des pratiques discursives, des systèmes qui instaurent
les énoncés comme des événements (ayant leurs conditions et
leur domaine d'apparition) et des choses (comportant leur
possibilité et leur champ d'utilisation). Ce sont tous ces
systèmes d'énoncés (événements pour une part, et chose pour
une autre) que je propose d'appeler archive." (AS, 169)
And for the existence of ''énoncé'' in the present, This passage may be of
interest.
« L'analyse de l'archive comporte donc une région
privilégiée : à la fois proche de nous, mais différente de notre
actualité, c'est la bordure du temps qui entoure notre présent,
qui le surplombe et qui l'indique dans son altérité; c'est ce qui,
hors de nous, nous délimite. La description de l'archive déploie
ses possibilités (et la maîtrise de ses possibilités) à partir des
discours qui viennent de cesser justement d'être les nôtres; son
seuil d'existence est instauré par la coupure qui nous sépare de
ce que nous ne pouvons plus dire, et de ce qui tombe hors de
notre pratique discursive; elle commence avec le dehors de
notre propre langage; son lieu, c'est l'écart de nos propres
pratiques discursives. » (AS, 172)
So, on the existence of énoncés in the present, we must understant that the
function of existence that make them possible is also made possible by the
practice we have of history. When you do history in a certain way, you
allow the present to be in a certain way... there seems to be a very strict
relation between past and present in Foucault. As for the future, the only
imperative I found is the necessity to assure that the future is not already
decided (thus the argument against transcendental history, which is in
continuity with the results of The order of things.)
Regards,
Jean-François
2007/9/17, Flemming Bjerke <lister@xxxxxxxxx>:
_______________________________________________
On Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:04:04 -0400
"Jean-François Mongrain" <jean.frm@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi,''past
I worked a little on the Archeology of knowledge, and the choise of
''énoncé'' by Foucault seems to answer the need of something like a
tense substantive''. Thus ''un énoncé'' would be better translated as''a
stated'', as it represent the time qualification of something that existHegel.)
only in a history of practices but is idependent of an anthropological
history (formulated in reference to a transcendental subject a la
As I understand your point l'énoncé is a construct made for historical
analysis, and it has no relevance outside this field. But, in
l'archelogie, Foucault does not define "l'énoncé" as "something that
exist only in a history of practices", but as an existence function. I
must also admit that I feel a bit uneasy imagining phenomena as having
existence in the past, but not in present, and as having no impact on
the future.
Flemming
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