Foucault as Complexity Theorist: Overcoming the Problems of Classical Philosophical Analysis

Mark Olssen

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Chapter 13 Foucault as Complexity Theorist

Overcoming the Problems of Classical Philosophical Analysis

In: A Normative Foucauldian

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Mark Olssen

Mark Olssen
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 359–384

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004464452_013

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Abstract

This article explores the affinities and parallels between Foucault’s Nietzschean view of history and models of complexity developed in the physical sciences in the 20th century. It claims that Foucault’s rejection of structuralism and Marxism can be explained as a consequence of his own approach which posits a radical ontology whereby the conception of the totality or whole is reconfigured as an always open, relatively borderless system of infinite interconnections, possibilities and developments. His rejection of Hegelianism, as well as of other Enlightenment philosophies, can be understood at one level as a direct response to his rejection of the mechanical atomist, and organicist epistemological world views, based upon a Newtonian conception of a closed universe operating upon the basis of a small number of invariable and universal laws, by which all could be predicted and explained. The idea of a fully determined, closed universe is replaced; and in a way parallel to complexity theories, Foucault’s own approach emphasises notions such as self-organisation and dissipative structures; time as an irreversible, existential dimension; a world of finite resources but with infinite possibilities for articulation, or reinvestment; and characterised by the principles of openness, indeterminism, unpredictability, and uncertainty. The implications of Foucault’s type of approach are then explored in relation to identity, creativity, and the uniqueness of the person. The article suggests that within a complexity theory approach many of the old conundrums concerning determinism and creativity, social constructionism and uniqueness, can be overcome.

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A Normative Foucauldian

Selected Papers of Mark Olssen

Series: Educational Futures, Volume: 74

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004464452

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 13 Sep 2021

Subjects
- Education

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Chapter 13 Foucault as Complexity Theorist

Overcoming the Problems of Classical Philosophical Analysis

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A Normative Foucauldian

Selected Papers of Mark Olssen

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