Genealogy and Biohistory: Foucault, Nietzsche, and the Historicity of Animals

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyze Foucault's reading of Nietzsche from the perspective of the relationship between human beings and animals. To do so, we will begin by mentioning two interpretations of the human-animal relationship based on Nietzsche's Second Untimely Consideration: one continuist and the other discontinuist. We will then contrast these interpretations with Foucault's two-part reading of Nietzsche: 1) in the 1950s reading, animals serve as a mask that dissolves the anthropological knot and frees human beings from their own truth; 2) while in the late 1960s reading, genealogy implies the perpetual intertwining of human history with that of animals. This interpretation helps to complexify the role that animals play in Foucault's reading of Nietzsche and in the philosophical context that gives rise to concepts such as biopolitics and biohistory.