Foucault's Baroque

OpenAlex · English

“Foucault’s Baroque” explores Foucault’s account of the Baroque era, which he mostly refers to as the Classical Age. It concentrates on The Order of Things , with regard to its account of a classical epistēmē. This is focused on representation, naming, and the tabulation of what is represented according to logical connections. This results in a mathesis, which takes inspiration from algebra but seeks a deeper taxonomy. This is formulated by Descartes, but Foucault regards the logic of Arnauld and Nicole as its most complete version. Foucault notes the tendency for representation to break down between empiricist representation and rational ideas, which is also a split between nominalism and metaphysics. The consequence is a breakdown in the epistēmē. In aesthetics, there is a reduction of the arts and poetic language to decoration and rhetoric in contrast with the purity of representation. This approach is what results in Baroque tendencies to repetition in style. The chapter also looks at Foucault’s account of Descartes and of tragedy in this era, as it is found in History of Madness . The exclusion of madness from reason and the reduction of tragedy to a determinist view of fate and royal power are other aspects of Baroque thought.