Phenomenon of Death in M. Foucault’s Work “The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception”

Abstract

The study aims to determine Foucault’s contribution to consideration of the death phenomenon in the context of analysing death in clinical thinking of the Great French Revolution. The article shows that in his work “The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception”, the philosopher presented the features characterising change in medical perception of death and attitude towards its significance in clinical, research, philosophical aspects. Scientific novelty of the work lies in studying M. Foucault’s philosophical views on change in attitude towards death within the framework of medical perceptions development. As a result, it is shown that death began to be considered not only as decomposition of a body but as a study object, “great analyst” making it possible to learn about life and disease. It complemented clinical experience and revealed true logic behind pathologic behaviour, in some cases unfathomable even when one constantly worked at the patient’s side.