A genealogy is a historical narrative that explains an aspect of human life by showing how it came into being… Genealogy as historical narrative may have no clear origin, but it is associated primarily with Friedrich Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals and more recently Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish. For Nietzsche and Foucault, genealogy serves a critical purpose, exposing the contingent and “shameful” origins of cherished ideas and entrenched practices.
Genealogy is a vague and general concept, and a theory of
genealogy should recognize this generality by leaving room for debate about the
several themes it highlights.
This essay stands in sharp contrast to pious but empty
invocations of genealogy as inherently critical. It offers a robust philosophical
account of genealogy that concentrates on its relation to radical historicism
to suggest what epistemic commitments it entails and how it functions as
critique.
Radical Historicism
Genealogy arose in the context of nineteenth century historicism.
Historicist modes of reasoning were commonplace throughout
the nineteenth century… Philosophers and social theorists of all persuasions
conceived of human life, and sometimes even the natural world, as defined by
creative and purposeful intentionality… Nineteenth century historicism was
almost always developmental. It conceived of history as guided or structured by
certain principles.
Radical historicism does away with appeals to principles that
lend necessity and unity to history. The result is a powerful emphasis on: nominalism,
contingency, and contestability.
I. Nominalism
Historicists generally conceive of human life as unfolding
against historical background… In contrast, radical historicists lean toward a
nominalist conception of actions and practices and the traditions informing them.
II. Contingency
Radical historicists thus portray history as discontinuous and
contingent. History is a series of contingent even accidental appropriations,
modifications, and transformations from the old to the new.
III. Contestability
An emphasis on contingency implies that history is radically
open in that what happens is always contestable… In doing so, radical
historicists often adopt a decentered approach, where to decenter is to show
how apparently uniform concepts, traditions, or practices are in fact social
constructs that cover and even arise from individuals acting on diverse and
changing meanings.
Truth
To conceive of genealogy as an expression of radical
historicism is to clarify its epistemic commitments.
Radical historicism is clearly opposed to truth claims that do
not recognize their own historicity… From a radical historicist perspective,
beliefs and truth-claims are always saturated by the particular tradition
against the background of which they are made.
It is impossible to emphasize that an opposition to utter
certainties does not entail a denial of all truth claims. To the contrary,
radical historicists still can make truth claims provided that they conceive of
“truth” not as a kind of timeless certainty but as something more like “objectively
valid for us” or “the best account of the world currently on offer”.
Critique
As an expression of radical historicism genealogy operates
primarily as a type denaturalizing critique.
Nietzsche and Foucault
Today Nietzsche still appears out of his times in his challenge
to developmental historicism.
Foucault’s use of genealogy is complicated by his clear debt
to a modernist structuralism.
Conclusion
This essay has argued that genealogy is a mode of knowledge
associated with radical historicism.
Arguably, the main advantage of this theory of genealogy is
simply that it focuses attention on philosophical issues… Genealogist and other
critical historians should not remain content simply to replicate genealogy as
a technique of inquiry and narration… [G]enealogists should open themselves up
to philosophical innovations and challenges.
