Reconciling Structuralism and History: Michel Foucault’s Epistemological Revision of an Enduring Tension

This article addresses the problematic relationship between structuralism and history in the thought of Michel Foucault, particularly regarding whether it is characterised by opposition or compatibility or, more precisely, whether the opposition between them persists.While reconciliation between the two had previously been deemed unlikely in the structuralist linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure , subsequent efforts have emerged to resolve this conflict.Among these is Michel Foucault's contribution, which highlights the following key points: the assertion that the concept of structure represents a transcendence of the biological-evolutionary interpretation of history rather than of history itself; the synchronic dimension of structure has acquired a historical character and the principles of transformation and the distancing from interpretation have become shared factors between history and structuralism.This reconciliation has been made possible through methodological revision within the structuralist framework and the historical approach.