Nietzschean Pathways in the Thought of Michel Foucault

Abstract

The central issue of my paper concerns the possibility of a critical attitude which does not have any fixed position to judge phenomena but aims to overturn all supposedly certain and originary foundations. I examine the Nietzschean roots of such a way of thinking as it surfaces in the philosophy of Michel Foucault. For this, I analyse (1) Foucault’s paper Nietzsche, Genealogy, History, and (2) his concept of power. In my opinion, the two authors are closely linked by their reflection on thinking itself long before questions of resemblance between their respective subjects, or those of interpretation arise. If there is no united external critical point of view, then thinking itself has to be a part of the very milieu it aims to conceive. Hence problems are not to be dealt with in fixed, timeless conceptual frameworks, but should be considered in terms of their dynamics, unfinished nature and historical genesis.