Heterotopia as a Reconstruction of the History of Ideas

Michel Foucault’s Archeology and its Appropriation by Ian Hacking

Abstract

This paper proposes an analysis of the work The order of things by Michel Foucault, based on the notion of heterotopia, to demonstrate that the author develops there an original procedure of re-reading the history of ideas, which consists of the rearrangement of elements canonized by historiography, creating new relations between them, as well as in the insertion of unusual or heterodox elements. We then show how Ian Hacking reappropriates this heterotopic procedure in The emergence of probability and how it influences the heart of the author’s philosophical project, whose unique reading of archaeology brings it back to epistemology, either through the idea of “immature science” or through his notion of “styles of scientific reasoning.” Understanding the conditions for the formation of our ideas denaturalizes our current ways of thinking, opening new possibilities for thought and action. The relevance and potential that this heterotopic procedure has for contemporary epistemology are thus evident.