What was the primary issue(s) or problem(s) for Foucault in defining Essay

What was the primary issue(s) or problem(s) for Foucault in defining history, as appeared in Nietzsche, Genealogy, History - Essay Example (78). Thus according to Foucault history should not be a seamless attempt at identifying the natural origin of events. Peoples, cultures, but rather needs to consider how this idea of the "essence" has been fabricated. Not only how it has been fabricated, but why people feel the need for some kind of essence is an essential part of history for Foucault. Thus the "genealogy" that appears in the title of Foucault's book should concern itself with the details, co-incidences and sheer accidents that underlie the beginnings of knowledge, values and cultures rather than a search for a non-existent origin. In this manner Foucault appears to support Nietzsche's argument that traditional history sees itself as a tracing of development towards some kind of culmination; that it sees itself as believing in an eternal truth - whether it be of events, people, ideas, or religion. Nietzsche, and Foucault subscribes to the same view, suggests that what Foucault calls "effective history" can only be reached by seeing events as divergent, discordant and essentially in conflict. As Foucault puts it, it should involve the "shattering of the unity of man's being", as everything that has been considered to be immutable and immortal must in fact be placed within history. Thus they become mutable and mortal. Foucault, as is o Foucault, as is often the case within his work, focuses on the human body as a locus for this kind of history. Thus "the body is molded by a great many distinct regimes; it is broken down by the rhythms of work, rest and holidays; it is poisoned by food or values, through eating habits or moral laws; it constructs resistances" (87). Thus a history of the body, which Foucault attempts in other works, would involve identify these "distinct regimes" that shape the body, often conflicting with one another and thus creating stress upon the human being. Foucault argues that effective history should move form the distant, remote vantage point of traditional history towards a closeness. It needs to look at the details of life, identifying their contradictions, rather than at the universal processes and themes that may actually camouflage the reality of events. This closeness should not involve an emotional connection with the subject, but rather "an alienated view". Overall, Foucault argues that the role of historian as is commonly perceived and practiced leads to a false view of history rather than the contrar7y. Thus the attempt to gain absolute and comprehensive knowledge of history, through reducing events to their simplest elements in order to "explain" them actually avoids the true complexity of history. The traditional type of historian is in fact centered on himself and thus paints the world through his particular biases and opinions, rather than seeing the innate complexity and conflicts that occur within history. Foucault argues that it is necessary to revolt against his type of history if the true nature of it is to be understood, and if it is to really inform the present and the future. To conclude, Foucault essentially dissects the nature of History as it is normally performed within the academic world, suggesting that that attempt to find universal truths in fact masks the actual reality of the world. He

Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch - Case Study Example Born in 1822 in France, Pasteur’s work in the field of microbiology is immensely recognized and encountered in our daily lives. Among his popular works include the invention of Pasteurization process, the discovery of the germ-disease relationship, as well as the invention of the rabies vaccine. Contributions He discovered the role of pasteurization while at the university where he was a chemistry professor. He was approached to establish the course of souring in wine. In the process Pasteur established that the reason behind the souring of wine can be related to that of souring in milk, which is as a result of bacterium contamination. He established that the bacterium produced an acid that was responsible for the souring of the wine. He went further to establish that, heating the wine gently to temperatures around 60o C for at least 30 minutes led to the destruction of the bacterium, which subsequently prevented further souring of wine (Krasner, 1995). He described the proces s of souring as fermentation and the process of heating the wine to temperature levels enough to kill the bacterium as pasteurization. The process is nowadays widely applicable in the many food production industries and even locally in many households to kill disease causing bacteria as well as improve shelf life of various food products as well as in hospitals to prevent germ re-infection (Engelkirk & Engelkirk, 2010). He is also recognized for his role in the discovery of attenuation. He discovered that rabies future rabies infection could also be prevented through vaccine which entailed injecting cultured weakened rabies bacteria into a rabbit and realized that after injection of the rabbits with virulent inoculant, the rabbits did not show any sign of infection. This vaccine has been enhanced and widely used in the prevention of rabies in human and dogs. In the germ theory, he discovered that specific microbes cause specific infectious disease. Robert Koch Robert Koch, born in 1 843 in Germany, is yet another infamous personality worth to recognize in the field of microbiology and human health. He is purported to have made a tremendous contribution in these fields. In particular according to Krasner (1995), Koch further enhanced the previous job of Pasteur especially the germ theory. He provided prove that the specific microbes were the cause of certain disease, for instance he showed that anthrax bacillus was the main cause of anthrax. This was through the conduction of a series of steps that became popularly known as the Koch’s Postulates. The postulates provided a guideline that would allow for the isolation and subsequent analysis of the specific microbes that cause specific diseases. He also discovered that the Anthrax Bacillus just like many spore-producing microbes, were capable of resisting adverse conditions, which was fundamental in understanding the life cycles of the disease as well as the correct mechanism of prevention of the disease. F urthermore, Koch is also recognized for inventing fixation, staining techniques as well photographing of bacteria which paved way for further studies on disease causing bacteria. Engelkirk and Engelkirk (2010) further contends that Koch was also the key personnel behind the discovery of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, the M. tuberculosis, and Vibrio cholera that causes cholera which are some of the most common and dangerous disease. This enhanced