The work of the late Michel Foucault had a considerable impact on philosophy and sociology but despite its importance for economic thought, it has gone almost unnoted by orthodox economists and historians of economics. This paper reviews Foucault’s Archaeological approach to knowledge and the periodization of intellectual history which he advocates. These issues are considered with reference to the history of economics from the Scholastics to Marx, and a number of problems with the analysis are discussed and critically evaluated.
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