Word and Thing: Archaeology of the Humanities (Shanghai Sanlian Academic Library)

Author: [French] Foucault, translated by Mo Weimin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2001-12-01
Features: This work attempts to construct an "archaeology of the humanities," which "aims to determine when the exploration of humanity began in Western culture and when the human became an object of knowledge." [1] Foucault uses the new term "episteme" to refer to the deep framework of the production, movement, and expression of knowledge in a specific period. Through an examination of the shifts in epistemes since the Renaissance, Foucault points out that there are profound ruptures between epistemes of different periods. Additionally, due to linguistics' unique function in deconstructing the language flowing through all humanities, it occupies a very special position in humanities research: through the study of language, epistemes reveal themselves from their hidden depths. This book is "full of wit, profound and obscure, and filled with wisdom" [1], yet it is precisely such an academic treatise that, upon its publication, became an instant bestseller: The book was published by the renowned French publisher Gallimard in October 1966, printing 3,500 copies, which sold out by the end of the year. A second printing of 5,000 copies was issued in June of the following year, followed by 3,000 in July, 3,500 in September, and another 3,500 in November; in 1967, 4,000 were printed in March and 5,000 in November. It is said that by the 1980s, The Order of Things had been printed over 100,000 copies in France alone. The reception of this book was equally dramatic, with opinions almost evenly divided—either highly praising it or fiercely condemning it. The leaders of both factions were formidable: the great philosopher Sartre, hailed as the "conscience of intellectuals," claimed the book sought to construct a new ideology, "the last dam that the bourgeoisie could build to resist Marxism," while the official magazine of the French Communist Party published a series of rebuttal articles. More interestingly, this time, Catholic intellectuals stood shoulder to shoulder with what seemed to be their mortal enemies, the communists: though their methods of attack differed, both factions were united in their opposition. But Foucault's side was no less formidable: Régis Debray rose up in protest, publishing a lengthy article in 1967 condemning Sartre and his allies' accusations against The Order of Things and pointing out that the real issue was not ideology, but rather the fact that Foucault had pioneered a completely new genealogy of thought—a path that Sartre and others, who clung to "humanism" or "humanitarianism," were unwilling to see and eager to eradicate.