Darwin and Foucault

This book embarks on an experiment: two aggressive »acids« of modern theory are combined in a laboratory beaker to observe how the mixture reacts.

Both Charles Darwin and Michel Foucault represent lines of thought that radically broke with tradition while calling into question not only the difference between the natural world and culture, but also the assumed inherent nature of things. Everything evaporates under this genealogical lens that investigates the origins of previous forms. In the process, it exposes that things have no inherent »identity« or »nature«, even that the very idea of a stable order within the natural world is preposterous.

Both Darwin and Foucault represent a variation of historical thought that, according to the theory presented in this book, undermines the comfortable, stable certainties offered by both biologism and cultural studies. It reveals that Darwin paradoxically understood the natural world as historical, while Foucault bypassed the supposedly insurmountable divide between the natural world and culture as a matter of course. A little known fact is that Foucault based his anti-cultural thought on one of Darwin's lectures. Here, Phillip Sarasin traces this progression in detail for the first time, calling upon some never-before used sources to do so.

The result is a highly interesting dialog between two theorists that remarkably influenced their respective realms, yet have hardly been examined in a common context.

»This Zurich-based historian's central findings could well also serve as the central theme of his book Darwin and Foucault; »Foucault is rooted in Darwin«. He used the same method, the same genealogical discourse analysis as Darwin's theory of evolution to arrive at a consistent history of humanity. [...] The fruit of the engagingly written book: a close and unbiased reading of Darwin, the now classic thinker. Even biologists may discover something new.« Neue Zürcher Zeitung

»Philip Sarasin's new book is one of the few truly rigorous Darwin accounts to appear in this Darwin anniversary year. « Berliner Zeitung

»Where movements of thought meet, they intersect. In all things Darwin and Foucault, Sarasin leaves quite literally no stone unturned and lets nothing lie.« Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»Blending these two very different authors makes a plethora of surprising things apparent; that's precisely why Sarasin's book distinguishes itself from the mountain of other thought industry books published for the anniversary of Darwin's 200th birthday.« Literaturen