Foucault's Archaeology

This title puts "The Archaeology of Knowledge" at the Heart of Foucault's thought. Michel Foucault (1926-1984) was a continental philosopher and critical theorist. His book "The Archaeology of Knowledge" (1969) was his main excursion into methodology, providing an anti-humanist account of the human sciences, particularly psychology and sociology. David Webb reveals the extent to which Foucault's approach to language in "The Archaeology of Knowledge" was influenced by the mathematical sciences, adopting a mode of thought indebted to thinkers in the scientific and epistemological traditions. By aligning his thought with the challenge to Kantian philosophy from mathematics and science in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, he shows how Foucault established his own perspective on the future of critical philosophy. It sheds new light on a crucial period of Foucault's work. It highlights Foucault's relation to thinkers such as Cavailles and Serres. It has interdisciplinary appeal to continental philosophers, critical theorists, analytical philosophers and philosophers of mathematics.