FOUCAULT, THE CLASSICAL AGE AND THE MÂTHÊSIS UNIVERSALIS

Abstract

The aim of this article is to delve into Foucault’s intuition in the book The Order of Things, regarding the máthêsis universalis as a general science of order and measurement, when it comes to characterizing the Classical Age. This characterization by Michel Foucault allows him to distance himself from the perception of this age through the lens of rationalism, mechanism, and mathematization of nature. In reflecting on the empirical order of beings, words, and things through the relationship between máthêsis, taxinomia and sign theory, Foucault also relativizes a certain perception of phenomenology (husserlian) that rationalism would be the foundation of modernity.

Keywords: Mathesis. Taxonomy. Archeology. Phenomenology. Michel Foucault. Descartes.