The Evolution of the Philosophical Concept of Necessity: From Foucault to Meillassoux. An Intertextual Analysis

The meaning of an intertextual analysis is not only to contribute to a best interpretation of philosophical theories. (The author chose French philosophers Michel Foucault, Francis Wolff and Quentin Meillassoux, and American philosopher Hilary Putnam because they criticized and developed the ideas of one another). The author's aim is to show that philosophy continues to exist by arguing against and refuting claims of the "end of the human", the "end of metaphysics", the "postmodern" epoch or "post-structuralism". The author believes that this makes philosophy necessary, and this research is to prove this point. First of all, the necessity problem appears with a philosophical reflection on rationality in history. Foucault claims any historical rational structure is contingent. Then, Putnam criticizes Fou-cault saying that in this way there is no difference of quality between different kinds of rationalities. Wolff develops the idea of the structured rational necessity. He says that even the metaphysical principles by Aristotle and Descartes are to be considered as temporal and historical structures of rationalities. Wolffs co-author, Gilles-Gaston Granger, writes about the difference between the absoluteness of a mathematical necessity and the totality of the laws of the nature. Meillassoux radically changes Fou-cault's paradox claiming that there is nothing but a mathematical necessity and philosophy must stop thinking in the terms of the Kantian opposition of necessity in the nature and in the world to the contingency of the spirit.

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