From jlaari@dodo.jyu.fi  Tue Apr 15 17:55:24 1997
From: jlaari@dodo.jyu.fi (Jukka Laari)
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 16:55:24 EET+200
Subject: M-TH: Re: More Althusser
Message-ID: <79F5CA7ECC@dodo.jyu.fi>

More about the concept of epistemological break, and 'French 
epistemology' in general, see for example an essay by Peter Dews in 
"The Limits of Enchantment" (Verso 1995, 39-59). (I've found Dews to 
be clear, precise, and very well informed writer.) That essay - 
"Foucault and the French Tradition of Historical Epistemology" - was 
first published in History of European Ideas, vol. 14, no. 3 (1992). 
Dews relies on Gary Gutting's lucid and insightful but neglected 
study "Michel Foucault's Archeology of Scientific Reason" (CUP 1989).

By the way, it's interesting how 'doxa' (widely shared but 
unsubstantiated understanding and conception) on the subject of 
French epistemology has tended to neglect the differences between the 
'original' French epistemology of Gaston Bachelard and Georges 
Canguilhem on the one hand, and interpretations and utilisations of it 
found in Althusser and Foucault on the other. Gutting (and Dews to a 
lesser degree) is important in analysing more rigorously (than in 
contemporary leftist all-around discussions) the subject of French 
epistemology. 

Jukka L


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