In the research team working with François Ewald that assists with the publication of Foucault's unpublished works, philosophers Orazio Irrera and Daniele Lorenzini have worked on the manuscript of Le Discours philosophique since 2015. If, as Foucault wrote, philosophy can no longer 'found knowledge' or 'enunciate being or man,' then philosophical discourse can only 'bring forth the interstice of works' and 'define their succession in the simultaneity of possibilities.' Consequently, is it not important that this essay, written between The Order of Things and Archaeology of Knowledge (Gallimard, 19), comes to light today, in the interstices of Foucault's work, to make explicit what makes his books – so different from what we are accustomed to considering as such – authentic philosophical acts? A new image of Foucault? It is a notable delay for a text that, 57 years later, tells us about the 'now' of philosophy. 'He didn't talk to us about his work,' he recalled.

Not even he who, as a young student, spent part of the summer of 1966 in the family home in Vendeuvre-du-Poitou (western France), where his uncle wrote the essay.

'A very wordy essay, like the first version of a text intended for publication,' explained Henri-Paul Fruchaud, Foucault's nephew and beneficiary, who discovered the work that no one seemed to have ever heard of. He had always thought the famous box from which this exceptional text emerged only contained lectures given at Tunis University between 19 by the future author of Discipline and Punish (Gallimard, 1975).īut it is indeed an essay that has emerged from the archives. Defert, Michel Foucault's partner and heir, who organized the publication of the philosopher's posthumous works after his death in 1984, himself died in February. It was a great surprise to discover the manuscript of Le Discours philosophique among the 110 boxes and some 38,000 pieces of paper in the Foucault archives, deposited at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF) by Daniel Defert in 2013. Subscribers only Michel Foucault (center), not far from André Glucksmann, at the Technical University of Berlin, West Berlin, 1978. Several experts explain how the treasures found in the philosopher's archives at the National Library of France elucidate Foucault's 'definition of philosophy.'īy David Zerbib (Philosopher) Published on May 11, 2023, at 7:00 pm (Paris) Unpublished works shed new light on Michel Foucault

The Shadows by L.A. Banks