O saber e o poder na História da loucura de Michel Foucault

Abstract

The intent this dissertation consists in investigating Michel Foucault’s work, History of the madness, if in it is already explained the relations between knowledge and power, which it would challenge the prevailing periodization of Foucault’s thinking. Accomplish this investigation, initially it aims to understand how the two historical discontinuous modes that the French philosopher established as instruments research. The archaeological mode enables to conceptualize the notion of knowing, and the genealogical mode provides the conceptualization of power. It suspects itself that both historical modes complement each other, and that, in turn, the concepts to knowledge and power articulate through the speech. Then, it having as object of study the History of madness, they are accomplished two stages: the first one, they are investigated the relations between knowledge and power involved in the transition from Renaissance period to classical; and in the second stage, the same proposal, but with emphasis in the transition from the classical period to the modern. In each of these stages, the argument consists in approaching three discourses that underpin certain practices: the social discourse, the legal discourse and scientific discourse. The choice for these discourses is justified by the frequency with which they appear in the course of the work. Based on the exposure of these discourses in both stages, it concludes itself that, in the History of madness, the arguments that enable the transformations in the conception of madness are pass through by relations between knowledge and power, it being that we have as a hypothesis the articulation between these areas are consolidated by the moral speech.