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''The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences'' ((フランス語:Les mots et les choses: Une archéologie des sciences humaines)) is a 1966 book by the French philosopher Michel Foucault. It was translated into English and published by Pantheon Books in 1970. (Foucault had preferred ''L'Ordre des Choses'' for the original French title, but changed the title because it had been used by two structuralist works published immediately prior to Foucault's). Foucault endeavours to ''excavate'' the origins of the human sciences, particularly but not exclusively psychology and sociology. The book opens with an extended discussion of Diego Velázquez's painting ''Las Meninas'' and its complex arrangement of sightlines, hiddenness, and appearance. Then it develops its central claim: that all periods of history have possessed certain underlying epistemological assumptions that determined what was acceptable as, for example, scientific discourse. Foucault develops the notion of episteme, and argues that these conditions of discourse have changed over time, from one period's episteme to another. Foucault demonstrates parallels in the development of three fields: linguistics, biology, and economics. == The concept of episteme == The key concept of the book is that various periods of history have been characterized by a certain number of conditions of truth or discourse which are common to various areas of knowledge and determine what it is possible or acceptable to affirm, and that these have been subject to change over time.〔Foucault, ''Dits et Écrits I'', in ''Sur la justice populaire'', p.1239〕 Foucault analyzes shifts in the paradigm of thought between the classical and modern periods: * In respect of language : from general grammar to linguistics * In respect of living organisms : from natural history to biology * In respect of money : from the science of wealth to economics. Foucault references three epistemes : # The episteme of the Renaissance, which is characterized by resemblance and similitude # The classical episteme, characterized by representation, ordering, identity and difference, giving rise to categorization and taxonomy # The modern episteme, the character of which Foucault seeks to uncover. Within the classical episteme, Foucault claims that the concept of "man" was not yet defined : certainly man was spoken of, but not subject to a distinct epistemological awareness.〔Foucault, ''Les mots et les choses'', ''op. cit.'', 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Order of Things」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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