milieu

is the representation of an indefinitely extendible line or plane, at once continuous and homogenous, and with neither definite shape nor privileged position, prevailed over the representation of a sphere or circle, attached to a fixed center of reference -- milieu does not evoke any relation except that of a position endlessly negated by exteriority.

With the success of the term milieu, the representation of an indefinitely extendible line or plane, at once continuous and homogeneous, and with neither definite shape nor privileged position, prevailed over the representation of a sphere or circle, which are qualitatively defined forms and, dare we say, attached to a fixed center of reference. Circumstances and ambience still retain a symbolic value, but milieu does not evoke any relation except that of a position endlessly negated by exteriority. The now refers to the before... the here refers to its beyond, and thus always and ceaselessly. The milieu is truly a pure system of relations without supports. (Canguilhem 'knowledge of life' : 103)

is both the environment within which actions take place and the material on which actions operate.

both the environment within which actions take place and the material on which action operates'. 'the milieu is the dynamic ensemble of historically interwoven natural givens and artificial givens'. it is the sum of a certain number of 'effets de masse' weighing on those who inhabit it and seek to shape it. it is 'dynamic and reflexively transformative.

is, in a mechanistic view, the idea that it is the river that makes fishes lead their lives just how they lead it, such that they are persons without personality.

Louis Roule was able to write, in his small book La vie des rivieres, that 'fish do not lead their lives on their own... it is the river that makes them lead it... they are persons without personality.'14 We have here an example of what a strictly mechanist usage of the notion of milieu necessarily leads to. IS (Canguilhem 'knowledge of life' : 103)

is put in poetic terms, the idea that, following condillac's fable of the statue, 'when the air smells like roses, a statue is rose-scented'.

The theory of milieu was at first the positive and apparently verifiable translation of Condillac's fable of the statue. When the air smells like roses, a statue is rose-scented. In the same way, the living, within the physical milieu, is light and heat, carbon and oxygen, calcium and weight. (Canguilhem 'knowledge of life' : 108)

is the environment within which actions take place and also the material on which action operates.

(a) the environment within which actions take place(b) the material on which action operatesthe dynamic ensemble of historically interwoven natural givens and artificial givens it is (a) dynamic and (b) reflexively transformative:

is the space in which a series of uncertain elements unfold.

The specific space of security refers then to a series of possible events... it refers to the temporal and the uncertain, which have to be inserted within a given space. The space in which a series of uncertain elements unfold is, I think, roughly what one can call the milieu. (Foucault 1978/2008 :35)

milieu, n.Definitions

milieu