Michel Foucault : topologies of thought : thinking-otherwise between knowledge, power and self

Abstract

If something new has appeared in philosophy and that "this work is as beautiful as those it challenges" we shall see that it all takes place in a new dimension, "which we might call a diagonal dimension, a sort of distribution of points, groups or figures that no longer simply act as an abstract framework but actually exist in space". The spaces that constitute this immanent dimension are topological or as Foucault says - "heterotopological". We shall designate these heterotopologies: Knowledge, Power and Self. Although these sites are irreducible to each other they seep into and 'capture' each other through a series of multiple and complex relations in such a way as to suspect, neutralise or invert the set of relations that they happen to designate, mirror or reflect. If within these sites subjects, objects and concepts disappear it is only in order to 'disperse' or 'distribute' them according to their variable functions and make them reappear again, released of their 'self-evidence', in a new space of immanence. Each heterotopology is capable of juxtaposing within itself and outside of itself, or rather across its folded surfaces, several formed spaces that are not isomorphic or even compatible but are heterogeneous and communicate with or 'encounter' each other through a pure transmission of elements