Introduction
Foucault is one of the most famous philosophers in contemporary French. With a critical perspective, he has created its own anti-subject philosophy system. On the one hand, it breaks classical cartesian rationalism of subjectivity. On the other hand, it also presents the attack on modern Kant anthropology, so as to establish new subjectivity value system. He opposed the idea which the irrational gives status to rational, to fight against diversity to subjectivity, eventually find a way out in a specific scientific world with most attraction by me.
Foucault Lifetime and Representative Works
Foucault was born in a family of doctors in France Vienne, the provincial capital of Poitiers, being attracted to in the study of philosophy from middle school age. He entered the Ecole Normale Superieure?Pari, under the tutelage of famous French scholar in Al Du Jose. In college, he joined the French Communist Party, but because of unacceptable of the PCF leadership, soon would not participate in the party's activities and in 1951 exit PCF. In 1968, he supported the “May storm” of Paris's students. In 1970, he was hired into the College France, and taught thought system history until the death. Foucault was one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth Century, and his thought was one of the greatest modern philosophies. His intellect is boundless, with convincing power, rigorous judgment and utmost harshness. Foucault's representative has been with “madness and irrational: the history of madness in rational age” in 1961, “the order of thing: An Archaeology of the human sciences” in 1966, “the archaeology of knowledge” in 1969, “discipline and punish: the birth of the prison” in 1975 and “the experience history of sex”in 1976 and 1984.
Key Words to Understand Foucault’s Thought
Knowledge, power, subjectivity and sex are the key words of Foucault's thought, which run through the philosophical and theoretical essence of Foucault's life. Foucault's life is based on empirical experience to explore the relationship between the subjectivity and the truth of the game, that is, how the subjectivity comes into the truth of the game. According to Foucault's own statement, he has more than 20 years of work goals, that is not to analyze the phenomenon of power, nor to provide the basis for this analysis. And his research should be explored in our culture, about humans in a variety of different subject mode of history. The total topic of my study can be not the power, but the subjectivity. Foucault's historical analysis about the subjectivity mode is carried out from the level of scientific theory and the level of coercive practice. Based on Foucault's own statement, all his works are in discussing a question: when people feel they are the madmen (Foucault, 1988), when people think they are the patients (Foucault, 1963), when people wonder if he is alive and speaking words (Foucault, 2014), when people judge his guilt and self punishment (Foucault, 1991), when people think of themselves as human desire (Harrison &Williams 1997), how people consider their existence through which game of truth"? Foucault's reflection and criticism on the subjectivity is based on the criticism of Descartes and Kant's main ideas.
The Critique of Foucault to Descartes and Kant
The philosophy of Descartes in seventeenth Century is a common basis of all western philosophy, the core of his thought is "I think therefore I am". Cartesian thought contains desire, understanding, imagination, assertion and negation, imagination and feeling. I think is I think I desire, I think I understand, I think my idea, I think I declare, I thought I was negative, I think I think I feel. Descartes argued that object world can be considered as orderly object which can construct the dualistic opposition thinking mode referring to subjectivity and objectivity, necessity and contingency, similarity and difference. Through the determination of subjectivity, it can through the power of rationality to grasp the truth. Since decartes, modern philosophical schools mostly based on subject, adhere to the two basic framework of subjective and objective. The subject is the origin of all philosophical reflection, and all the questions are unfolded around the subjectivity and try to find the answer from the subjectivity. For this, the Cartesian rationalism philosophy has the free will to get rid those which do not meet the requirements of the new rational thinking, action and the existence from the western social life. On the one hand, Descartes is in the affirmative reason supreme position, the reason also has the serious consequence.
Foucault discussed rational to non rational repressed coding in “madness and non rational”, and in" words and things ", Foucault conducted deep analysis about the culture and knowledge history from renaissance era to 20th century and critique of the transcendental philosophy of consciousness and subjectivity principle. If the focus of Foucault's criticism of the classical period philosophy of Descartes's rationalism, the rational criticism focused on western rationalism. Then in the book “word and thing”, the focus of Foucault's criticism is the modern anthropology. In the book “word and the thing”, Foucault said: "in the end of eighteenth Century, people do not exist"(Foucault, 1988). Foucault was very surprised to find that people do not exist within the classical knowledge. The existence of the discourse of the order of the representation of the right, for the study of grammar or wealth system, does not need to pass through the humanities, but only through the discourse". In 18 century, although knowledge involved in all aspects of people, but the lack of awareness of the people, there is no suitable expertise field for people. Because of the concept of human nature and the way it works, there is a possibility to exclude classical humanism". Since the middle of the 17th century to the 18th century, it is to conduct the research about law or wealth system, just by the appearance of order words without the humanities. This shows that the generation of the subjectivity is not a prior nature regulation, is not the supreme, is not the subjectivity, as well as anthropology subjectivity of Kant.
Kant's anthropology is based on the critique of Descartes's philosophy of subjectivity, which is not a special subject of study in our culture, but a philosophical structure in a special sense. Kant's four critical questions: what can I know? what do I have to do? what can I hope? what are people? This structure now makes all philosophical problems be in the field of human limitation. Descartes believes that human subjectivity is a prior, supreme and infinite development. And Kant recognized the limitation of human subjectivity and presented its criticism. What Foucault is going to criticize is Kant 's theory of anthropology, that is Kant put knowledge possibility and limitation of human being link together.
Harrison &Williams (1997) argued that Foucault is not a Cartesian, nor an anthropological subjectivity of Kant. He opposes the western transcendental level subjectivity, but also refuses to join the limited subjectivity of Kant to seek relief. Kant really think there is not a foundation of subjectivity, a common form of which we can find everywhere. And he is very suspicious of such a concept, even full of hostility to it. The different and changeable subjectivity is in the process of history. Foucault is from a historical point of view, in the field of philosophers to be ignored to conduct system demonstration. Foucault said: "maybe today, our goal is not to find out what we are, but to reject what we are. We must conceive and gradually establish the "double bonds" that we may be, in order to get rid of this kind of politics, that is, the individual and the whole of the modern power structure to conduct at the same time. We must promote the generation of new forms of subjectivity by resisting the individual nature of the forces that have imposed upon us for centuries. Foucault is looking for a way out: In my opinion, in the final analysis, the historical analysis of scientific discourse should not obey a theory of cognitive subjectivity, but should obey the theory of a kind of discourse practice theory(Foucault, 1988). Foucault eliminated the drawbacks caused by history and the enlightenment with a new discourse theory.
Conclusion
From seventeenth Century to nineteenth Century, western philosophy is regarded as the subjectivity of philosophy. Foucault believe that one of the main mission of our times, is to question the supremacy of the subjectivity. Foucault hopes through language, symbols, anonymous system, variable structure to replace subjectivity, completely destroyed two hundred years of philosophy which Descartes give subjectivity supremacy, resulting in specific technological philosophy world to find a way out. Michel Foucault is not to deny the ideal, but conduct reduction status of non rational; not to deny subjectivity but denies specificity. The subject should be decomposed into multiple, diverse; not absolute origin but has constructive. Foucault is not a pessimist, nor a relativist, his theoretical system has a more profound meaning and practical significance.
Reference
Foucault, M.(1991). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. USA:Penguin.
Foucault, M.(1988). Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. USA:Vintage.
Foucault, M.(1982). The Archeology of Knowledge. USA:Vintage.
Foucault, M.(2002). Power: The Essential Works of Michel Foucault 1954-1984. USA: Penguin.
Foucault,M.(2014). Michel Foucault: The Order of Things. USA: Avant-Garde Series for Heathwood Press.
Foucault,M.(1963). The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception. France: Presses Universitaires De France.
Harrison,W.C.,&Williams,J.H.(1997). Understanding Sexuality: From Kinsey to Foucault. Norfolk Island: Greenwich University Press.