On the unity of philosophy and its faculty in a dialogue with Michel Foucault

Abstract

This article raises the problems of the unity and specificity of philosophy and its faculty, within the framework of the university and in relation to society. All of this is based on an analysis of the most salient aspects of the notion that Michel Foucault reserved to indicate the differential characteristic of the activity of thought: the notion of “problématisation”. In the framework of our considerations, we will present the faculty of philosophy as the faculty of a free and public university, as a faculty not dedicated to “knowing”, “creating” or “acting”, but to thinking - whose specificity is to problematize - capable of structuring the essential critical function that the university must have in our society, under an autonomy, free from social demands, which, for this very reason, can propose models of orientation for greater freedom and social equality.