Places and Other Places. Language and Space in the Philosophy of Michel Foucault in the 1960's

Michel Foucault locates the birthplace of The Order of Things in a text by Borges who quotes « a particular Chinese Encyclopedia » where it is written that « animals are divided into : those which a) belonged to the emperor, b) embalmed, c) tamed, d) suckling pig, e) sirens, f) fabulous, g) stray dogs, h) included in the current classification, i) shake themself like crasy, j) countless k) drawn with a very fine paintbrush of camel hair, l) etcetera, m) just broke the jar, n) looks like flies from afar. It is our experience of « the naked impossibility to think the latter » that constitues Foucault's point of departure for his « archeology of humain science ». From the very beginning, Foucault concerns himself with the question of the possibility or the impossibility of thought. Borge's particular Chinese Encyclopedia apprears like a toughtless taxinomy. This experience of langage manifests the limits of our tinking. There is a apparent paradox regarding the experience of limits and of the impossibility of thought , which, according to Foucault inspired his study of the possibility of man to give himself representations, to think and to know. Foucault's archeological enterprise thus presents itself as the study of the conditions of possibility of modern knowledge. It will be necessary then to..