Michel Foucault's archeology of knowledge: between structural description and epistemological analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to show how Michel Foucault's archaeological research was developed from the composition of a hybrid theoretical-methodological axis, which served as a contribution to the practice of his archaeological histories in the sixties. The theoretical-methodological hybridism of the archeology of knowledge was explored in this article from a theoretical path that puts into question the complex relationship between French epistemology and structuralism, both articulated by the philosopher through the problem of the description of knowledge. In this way, the article seeks to locate the singularity of Michel Foucault's method entitled archeology of knowledge and to offer a contribution to an important debate originating in the sixties about Foucault's participation in the structuralist movement. In fact, the philosopher adopts structuralist procedures when delimiting the notion of episteme as a structure for knowledge, but carries out a structural analysis through a research problem posed by French epistemology and through historical discontinuity.