Michel Foucault, Body Politics and the Rise and Expansion of Modern Anatomy*

Abstract

Abstract The New Science and the arts flourished vigorously in the seventeenth century Netherlands. Of special importance were the anatomical theatres in Leiden. Delft and Amsterdam. These theatres were important cultural centres in the sense that they were centres of arts and sciences, meeting places for artists and scientists, and places with a public function. What role did anatomy played in the rise and expansion of modern science. Many scholars assume that religion, and more generally speaking, morality, was strongly opposed to anatomy, but then it is difficult to explain how anatomy and anatomical theatres could be of such central significance. It is Michel Foucault's thesis, however, that there was no hindrance by religion and morality, but an antagonism between two medical discourses, the clinical (life) and the anatomical (death). This thesis is tested by exploring anatomy practices and regulations in early‐modern Italy. Holland. England and France. The results indicate that, not only antagonism between medical discourses, but also conflicting opinions on teaching and the conditions for scientific progress, and. most of all, the interest taken by government in anatomy, played a part. The question as to whether moral standards were a hindrance to the advance of science, was primarily dependent on body politics.

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