Descartes, Foucault, Derrida

• Authors: Karel
• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

The article offers a detailed interpretation of Foucault’s and Derrida’s readings of the passages about madness and dreaming in Descartes’ First Meditation. The article begins by focusing on Descartes’ text and Foucault’s original reading of it in his History of Madness, a reading clearly determined by the overall direction of Foucault’s first great book. It then inquires into Derrida’s criticism of Foucault in “Cogito and the History of Madness”, and shows how Foucault, in his rejoinder, „My Body, This Paper, This Fire“, subtly changes his original line of interpretation. In fact, Foucault’s new reading, strongly emphasising the meditative dimension of Descartes’ text, directly anticipates the key issues treated by Foucault in his final period. As for Derrida’s dialogical approach to Descartes’ Meditation, the article submits that it may have been directly influenced by a passage on dreaming from Descartes’ later Search for Truth. Besides these particular points and some further detailed analyses, the article summarises the wider implications of the dispute for our understanding of the philosophical positions of both thinkers.

Keywords

EN

madness; dreaming; Descartes; Foucault; Derrida

Discipline

• PHILOSOPHY: PHILOSOPHY

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Filosofický časopis (Philosophical Journal)
• Year: 2010
• Volume: 58
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 171-202
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Karel

• Filosofický časopis, redakce, Filosofický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i., Jilská 1, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic