According to Macherey, the genealogy of the subject is to Foucault what vitalism in sciences is to Canguilhem. The author of De Canguilhem à Foucault and Le sujet des normes clarifies the meaning and function of the "force of norms", the Leitmotiv that links the works of the two French philosophers and points to the persistent boost determined by all that resists to historical-political and theoretical-scientific systematization, i.e., to normalization. On the one hand, the political and multidisciplinary use of this method leads towards an anti-essentialist vision of care-related life forms; on the other hand, it reformulates the terms of self-recognition processes, performed within and against power relationships.
Keywords: Normalization - Language - Recognition - Otherness - Pierre Macherey