regarding the correspondence versus coherence theories of truth in relation
to foucault's work, some of my posts on this thread might be helpful:
http://www.cross-x.com/vb/showthread.php?t=992958 [my username is
lazzarone].
i think the line foucault walks is to suspend correspondence theory for the
purpose of a coherentist historical investigation. this is akin to the
method used by thomas kuhn in 'the structure of scientific revolutions' (the
point of which was not that there's no empirical truth). that's also a
connection briefly explored in dreyfus and rabinow's cogent book on
foucault, 'beyond structuralism and hermeneutics'.
to correct an earlier point, however, foucault wasn't much interested in
"meaning" per se, which i commented on toward the end of post #23 and more
precisely in post #24 of the aforementioned thread: "the archeologist (in
foucault's sense) not only attempts to remain neutral on the question of
whether a particular discourse is scientifically true or not; the
archeologist also remains neutral on the question of whether a particular
discourse makes any sense at all".
of course, foucault's later turn to genealogy reintroduced a minimal
hermeneutics of meaning, but that's another and longer story.
to foucault's work, some of my posts on this thread might be helpful:
http://www.cross-x.com/vb/showthread.php?t=992958 [my username is
lazzarone].
i think the line foucault walks is to suspend correspondence theory for the
purpose of a coherentist historical investigation. this is akin to the
method used by thomas kuhn in 'the structure of scientific revolutions' (the
point of which was not that there's no empirical truth). that's also a
connection briefly explored in dreyfus and rabinow's cogent book on
foucault, 'beyond structuralism and hermeneutics'.
to correct an earlier point, however, foucault wasn't much interested in
"meaning" per se, which i commented on toward the end of post #23 and more
precisely in post #24 of the aforementioned thread: "the archeologist (in
foucault's sense) not only attempts to remain neutral on the question of
whether a particular discourse is scientifically true or not; the
archeologist also remains neutral on the question of whether a particular
discourse makes any sense at all".
of course, foucault's later turn to genealogy reintroduced a minimal
hermeneutics of meaning, but that's another and longer story.