Abstract

[Foucault reads Descartes. Method and subjectification in the “Metaphysical meditations”] This essay aims a genealogy about Foucault’s interpretation of Descartes in the light Foucault’s interpretation of his own work. In one of his last interviews, he shows how the theme of his reflection wasn’t just the power but rather the ways in which the individual is made “subject”: by knowledge, by «practices of division» that objectify him in the figures of the insane, the criminal, the abnormal, and finally by an autonomous self plasmation that Foucault finds in ancient ethics. Each one of these topics reflects a particular phase of Foucault’s thought, in which he deals with Descartes according to different intents and approaches. So this essay follows the development of Foucault’s reflection starting from his interpretation of Descartes.