Genealogy as a Practice of Freedom: Foucault's Historical Critique

Abstract

<p>Michel Foucault's philosophy took the form of a series of historicallygrounded "genealogical" studies of the interconnections between knowledge and various social practices in contemporary society. This work is a reading of "the good11-to use Charles Taylor's term-in Foucault's genealogies.</p> <p> According to the American social-historian David Rothman, "history is a liberating discipline for it reminds us that there is nothing inevitable about the institutions and procedures that surround us. In developing my reading of "the good" in Foucault's genealogies I have endeavoured to translate the spirit of this claim into the proposition that Foucault's genealogies were an expression of his desire to increase human freedom through historical critique; i.e., that Foucault's ethics were embodied in his philosophy which constitutes "a practice of freedom".</p>