Q: Do you see a common inspiration in the attitude of the young generation? Sartre: A dominant tendency, at least, since the phenomenon is not general: it is the denial of history. The success of Michel Foucault's last book is typical. What do we find in The Order of Things? Not an “archaeology” of the human sciences. An archaeologist is someone who investigates the traces of a past civilization in an attempt to reconstruct it. He studies a period which was conceived and worked up by men. In the course of events, this period was able to impose itself as a natural situation, taking on the aspect of a given.