Heidegger and Foucault: the truth prior to proposition

Abstract

The main idea of this article is to think about the extent to which Foucault's late studies on the relationship between subjectivity and truth may have benefited from Heidegger's thinking. To do this, we will first analyze the way in which Heidegger presents the question of truth in the text On the Essence of Truth. We will then analyze the extent to which Foucault's reformulation of his problematization of truth in the 1980s may be tributary to Heidegger's questioning. The article is part of a more general research effort in which we try to understand one of Foucault's most famous and controversial statements: that Heidegger has always been his essential philosopher. While it is true that we cannot simply assume this statement to be “true”, we will try to show how fruitful it can be to return to the Foucauldian idea of a “history of truth” through a dialog - often given in the form of a confrontation - of his thought with Heidegger's.