Michel Foucault · Philosophy

The Episteme and the End of Man

In <em>The Order of Things</em>, Foucault argued that each historical age thinks within a hidden underlying order - an <em>episteme</em> - that silently fixes what can count as knowledge. Tracing these deep ruptures, he reached a startling conclusion: &lsquo;Man&rsquo; as the object and ground of the human sciences is a recent invention, and one perhaps nearing its end.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that for Foucault, each age has an episteme : an underlying, mostly unconscious order that determines what counts as knowledge in that period. Knowledge does not progress smoothly but is reorganized by deep ruptures between epistemes. He concluded that &lsquo;Man&rsquo; is a recent invention of one such or…

Leads to Immanuel Kant.

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