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Michel Foucault

Born

in Poitiers, France

October 15, 1926

Died

June 25, 1984

Website

https://michel-foucault.com/

Genre

Philosophy, History, Social Sciences

Influences

Martin Heidegger, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gaston Bachelard, Roland Barthe ...more

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Paul-Michel Foucault was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationships between power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of social control through societal institutions. Though often cited as a structuralist and postmodernist, Foucault rejected these labels. His thought has influenced academics, especially those working in communication studies, anthropology, psychology, sociology, criminology, cultural studies, literary theory, feminism, Marxism and critical theory.
Born in Poitiers, France, into an upper-middle-class family, Foucault was educated at the Lycée Henri-IV, at the École Normale Supérieure, where he developed an intere Paul-Michel Foucault was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationships between power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of social control through societal institutions. Though often cited as a structuralist and postmodernist, Foucault rejected these labels. His thought has influenced academics, especially those working in communication studies, anthropology, psychology, sociology, criminology, cultural studies, literary theory, feminism, Marxism and critical theory.
Born in Poitiers, France, into an upper-middle-class family, Foucault was educated at the Lycée Henri-IV, at the École Normale Supérieure, where he developed an interest in philosophy and came under the influence of his tutors Jean Hyppolite and Louis Althusser, and at the University of Paris (Sorbonne), where he earned degrees in philosophy and psychology. After several years as a cultural diplomat abroad, he returned to France and published his first major book, The History of Madness (1961). After obtaining work between 1960 and 1966 at the University of Clermont-Ferrand, he produced The Birth of the Clinic (1963) and The Order of Things (1966), publications that displayed his increasing involvement with structuralism, from which he later distanced himself. These first three histories exemplified a historiographical technique Foucault was developing called "archaeology".
From 1966 to 1968, Foucault lectured at the University of Tunis before returning to France, where he became head of the philosophy department at the new experimental university of Paris VIII. Foucault subsequently published The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969). In 1970, Foucault was admitted to the Collège de France, a membership he retained until his death. He also became active in several left-wing groups involved in campaigns against racism and human rights abuses and for penal reform. Foucault later published Discipline and Punish (1975) and The History of Sexuality (1976), in which he developed archaeological and genealogical methods that emphasized the role that power plays in society.
Foucault died in Paris from complications of HIV/AIDS; he became the first public figure in France to die from complications of the disease. His partner Daniel Defert founded the AIDES charity in his memory. ...more

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Michel Foucault’s books

Average rating: 4.1 · 144,760 ratings · 8,276 reviews · 669 distinct works • Similar authors

	Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison 4.24 avg rating — 36,960 ratings — published 1975 — 122 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction by Michel Foucault, Robert Hurley (Translator) 4.02 avg rating — 25,655 ratings — published 1976	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason 4.08 avg rating — 14,567 ratings — published 1961 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences 4.12 avg rating — 9,601 ratings — published 1966 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Archaeology of Knowledge and The Discourse on Language by Michel Foucault, Alan Sheridan (Translator) 4.11 avg rating — 7,418 ratings — published 1969 — 86 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The History of Sexuality, Volume 2: The Use of Pleasure by Michel Foucault, Robert Hurley (Translator), Zlatko Wurzberg (Translator) 4.06 avg rating — 4,542 ratings — published 1984	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	This Is Not a Pipe by Michel Foucault, James Harkness (Translator) 3.83 avg rating — 3,239 ratings — published 1968 — 45 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977 by Michel Foucault, Colin Gordon (Editor/Translator), Leo Marshall (Translator) 4.14 avg rating — 2,996 ratings — published 1977 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975-1976 by Michel Foucault, David Macey (Translator) 4.29 avg rating — 2,868 ratings — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The History of Sexuality, Volume 3: The Care of the Self by Michel Foucault, Robert Hurley (Translator) 4.02 avg rating — 2,852 ratings — published 1984	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Michel Foucault…

Series by Michel Foucault

The History of Sexuality (5 books)
by

Michel Foucault,

Robert Hurley (Translator),

Frédéric Gros (Editor)

4.03 avg rating — 33,326 ratings

Cours au Collège de France/Lectures at the Collège de France (13 books)
by

Michel Foucault,

Graham Burchell (Translator),

Michel Senellart (Editor),

François Ewald (Editor),

Alessandro Fontana (Editor),

Arnold I. Davidson (Editor)

4.28 avg rating — 9,757 ratings

Essential Works of Foucault (1954-1984) (3 books)
by

Michel Foucault,

Robert Hurley (Translator),

James D. Faubion (Editor)

4.23 avg rating — 1,651 ratings

Dits et écrits (6 books)
by

Michel Foucault,

Işık Ergüden (Translator)

4.28 avg rating — 212 ratings

Ditos e Escritos (10 books)
by

Michel Foucault

4.73 avg rating — 67 ratings

More series by Michel Foucault…

Quotes by Michel Foucault (?)

“People know what they do; frequently they know why they do what they do; but what they don't know is what what they do does.”
― Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason

1031 likes

“I don't feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am. The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning.”
― Michel Foucault

737 likes

“Where there is power, there is resistance.”
― Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction

tags: activism, leftism, power, resistance

596 likes

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Michel Foucault

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