Customer Reviews (1)

A Tremendous Collection of Essays from Many Perspectives
This collection of essays about Foucault's thought assumes at least some familiarity with his work and is valuable even for the most weathered of Foucault students. It contains essays by such big names in philosophy as Jürgen Habermas, Charles Taylor, Richard Rorty, Ian Hacking, Edward Said, and Hubert Dreyfus, as well as by such big names in Foucauldian scholarship as Arnold Davidson and Paul Rabinow (along with Dreyfus).These essays are all generally respectful in tone, but some are of a highly critical nature (those of Charles Taylor and Habermas, especially) while others are of an interpretive nature (those of Arnold Davidson, Richard Rorty, Dreyfus/Rabinow, Ian Hacking).Most of these essays are of very fine quality, and even ones with which I do not agree (like that of Charles Taylor) are still extremely interesting and valuable, perhaps for that very reason.

I've read a great deal of Foucault as well as secondary literature about him, and I would go so far as to say that this is the best critical volume available, if you are looking for a nice array (from positive to negative) of philosophically important perspectives.The CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO FOUCAULT is valuable as a collection of scholarly essays concerning Foucault, but this FOUCAULT: A CRITICAL READER provides a completely different realm of discussion by incorporating a sense of active philosophical dialogue where Foucault is not necessarily the central participant.That is not to say that Foucault is not the subject of these essays, as they run the gamut from analysis of his early work on madness, to his middle quasi-structuralist work, to his later work on ethics. But, the thought contained in these essays are not always confined within the realm of thought Foucault opened up and actively confront pragmatic and philosophical problems with his work

The essay by Dreyfus and Rabinow is particularly fine as an interpretation of Foucault's oeuvre.Their book, MICHEL FOUCAULT: BEYOND STRUCTURALISM AND HERMENEUTICS, is still the standard text for a philosophically rigorous interpretation of Foucault.This essay seems to update the reading they provided in that text and is very engaging.

Another great feature of this collection is that many of the essays cite the others or at least the authors of the others, so one gets the sense of a superb discussion.The essays by Arnold Davidson and Richard Rorty have conflicting interpretations about the coherency of Foucault's oeuvre, the former viewing archaeology and genealogy as companion methods (as Foucault did...most of the time...) and the latter viewing archaeology as a failed project then replaced by a more philosophically coherent project of genealogy.More directly, Rorty's essay is a response to a lecture given by Ian Hacking, a lecture which is one of the two items by Hacking published in this collection.Almost every author (to my recollection) cites Dreyfus and Rabinow, and some speak about the Habermas/Foucault debate-that-never-was, while Habermas himself includes a short article partially (but only partially) summarizing his criticisms of Foucault in his very engaging THE PHILOSOPHICAL DISCOURSE OF MODERNITY.

For anyone interested in Foucault in any significant way or for those interested in the takes of any of these thinkers on Foucault, this volume is a must. ... Read more

Book Description
Based on extensive new research and a bold interpretation of the man and his texts, The Passion of Michel Foucault is a startling look at one of this century's most influential philosophers. It chronicles every stage of Foucault's personal and professional odyssey, from his early interest in dreams to his final preoccupation with sexuality and the nature of personal identity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

An Excellent Expose
I read this work as part of a postmodern philosophy of the self class, and, among the esteemed company of Nietzsche and Heidegger, this book truly stands out as a great illumination of Foucault's life. The truth of the matter is, no matter whether or not you believe learning about an author adds to your understanding and enjoyment of his works, people will always want to know more. I found Miller's writing to be extremely precise and erudite without being unnecessarily technical or prosaic as biographies can sometimes be. Miller ties in Foucault's thought and philosophies to the story of his life in a way that allows one to really understand more about what Foucault was writing and why, and provides context to said works in a way that allows the reader to grasp it. Of course, reading "The Passion of Michel Foucault" isn't the same as reading the works of Foucault--nor is it a substitute--but I found it to be a fitting start--or end--to a study of the great philosopher he was.

Pure Garbage- Why Not Illuminate the Man's Thought Instead?
This book had been recommended me, as a Foucault freak, and I must say that I was immensely disappointed.As one of the above reviewers said, he's just digging up a bunch of dirt that doesn't have much redeeming value in the end.I love S&M myself but 200 pages detailing Foucault's odd and disturbing behaviors in his personal life did nothing whatsoever to illuminate, for me, the connections between his personal life and his works.Follow Martin Heidegger's advice here: don't learn anything about the life of the philosopher you seek to know, let his works speak for him!A lot of academics were offended when Heidegger taught Plato this very way- way back in the 1920s- but believe me, it is an approach which is not yet outdated.

Passionate Truth?
This book, based on the "philosophical life" of the late French philosopher Michel Foucault, reveals the mind of a man who was, says Miller, "one of the most original---and daring---thinkers of the century."Far from being just another biography of Foucault's life, Miller's thoroughly researched project demonstrates time and again the intimate interconnection between the way a life is lived and the thinking and writing that can come from that life.But this is much more than just an intellectual history.One Can't help but share in the passion that speaks through Miller's writing, powerfully earning this book its title.

Foucault said, "...there is not a book I have written that does not grow, at least in part, out of a direct, personal experience."Each chapter of Miller's book gradually unfolds the truth of this statement, beginning with Foucault's earliest writings on madness and mental illness, through his works on knowledge and criminality, to his final opus on the nature of human sexuality.Foucault's unorthodox approach to history is made clear, revealing a revolutionary philosophy based not on structured logic and reason, but growing instead from the realm of experience, in keeping with the "great Nietzschean quest [to] become what one is."

I personally found this book quite disturbing, still accepting as I do many principles of existential humanism, especially those of free will and personal responsibility.But humanism as a whole is a philosphy Foucault and his contemporaries emphatically reject as "a diminution of man," made up of "everything in Western civilization that restricts the desire for power" and "every attitude that considers the aim of politics to be the production of happiness."In reality, says Foucault, happiness does not exist---and the happiness of man exists still less."

"The individual," he is reported to have said, "is contingent, formed by the weight of moral tradition, not really autonomous."And we "can and must make of man a negative experience, lived in the form of hate and aggression."

Somewhat stunned, I've nevertheless gained from Miller's book a new understanding of the world I live in, and of myself as part of that world."Under the impact of civilization," he summarizes, "the will to power (Freud's 'death instinct') has been driven inward and turned against itself---creating within the human being a new inclination: to destroy himself."So, if Foucault is right, the basic truth that society tries to make humans homogenously "tame" is itself the very root of the violence and decadence of our times.If we are to point to the cause of these problems, we can only point at ourselves and at our structured ways of thinking.The problem is not what we have allowed to be, but rather what we have tried to deny and eliminate."I am referring," says Foucault, "to all those experiences that have been rejected by our civilization, or which it accepts only within literature."This view throws the current move toward increased artistic censorship into new and unexpected relief.

For Foucault, then, the issue is the same, whatever the subject at hand: the concept of madness, our systems of language and knowledge, law and the punishment of crime, or the idea and expression of our individual sexuality.Regardless of our lifestyle, history has told us the limits of what we can be, and as individuals and as a culture we are paying a great price for believeing it.According to Foucault, the solution can only be to "free ourselves from...cultural conservatism, as well as from political conservatism.We must see our rituals for what they are: completely arbitrary things."We must find the "limits" of our thinking and learn to transcend them.Says Foucault, "...the unity of society [is] precisely that which should...be destroyed."

Miller's book is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

Was it all a dream?
I assume Miller is trying to demystify Foucault from the deifying result of the author function surrounding his subject. Despite Foucault's writing about it and his advocacy of a nameless or faceless book, I am aware that Foucault was aware of his author function. Books like "The Passion Michel Foucault" by Miller as well as works by Eribon and Macey serve the same function to perpetuate Foucault's own author function.

I am not convinced either that Foucault's es muss sein can be essentialized as a Nietzschean project per se. Foucault is the great synthesizer. Rather than build on his academic successes, Miller pokes around looking for dirt on Foucault using the same technique that proved successful for Foucault - the archives. Read all three biographies to get an idea of his work but make sure to read his TEXT to get an idea of his thought.

Miguel Llora

Lets Get Real about this Biography
I give 2 starsbecause Miller is uncritical and his premise is excellent, looking at Foucault's life as a Nietzean exercise, but his execution of it is rather clunky. 1)His interpretation is overdetermined. Reading thisbiography flattens Foucault's works into being about the same thing. Foucault, in Miller's hands, appear to never have had shifts in histhinking. 2)Reader beware! Miller quotes Foucault out of context. One willalways have to compare Miller's quotes against the original. 3) Heoverpersonalizes the philospher failing to provide a context of whichFoucault's ideas had arisen.If you want a well-balanced biography tryDavid Macey.Macey respects the reader's intelligence, he allows us todecide for ourselves unlike, Miller who imposes his interpretation on us. ... Read more

Book Description
In this sequel to The History of Sexuality, Volume I: An Introduction, the brilliantly original French thinker who died in 1984 gives an analysis of how the ancient Greeks perceived sexuality.

Throughout The Uses of Pleasure Foucault analyzes an irresistible array of ancient Greek texts on eroticism as he tries to answer basic questions: How in the West did sexual experience become a moral issue? And why were other appetites of the body, such as hunger, and collective concerns, such as civic duty, not subjected to the numberless rules and regulations and judgments that have defined, if not confined, sexual behavior? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Foucault
A good account of the history of sexuality. One of the most prominant of writers on the subject next to Freud.
A difficult read, great for refrencing in academic work.

Destroying the mind forged restraints
In the second volume of his history of sexuality L'Usage des plaisirs or The Use of Pleasure M. Foucault turns to ancient Greece, an era opulent in honest eroticism. Sexuality is so key to our development that all sorts of restrictions are found in the most primitive of societies. According to M. Foucault, even in the animal kingdom, sexual practice is followed by something remarkably resembling the seeds of moral behavior. We must move outside the confines of society, if only for a short time, if we wish to escape the confining practices of sexual morality. Within this framework,the bathhouse and the orgy chambers may be said to offer refuge transgression from the constraints of civilization. It seems that the only place in society where sexuality has ever been entirely free of moral hindrances has been the fantasizing adolescent mind. For more on this topic, kindly refer to History of Sexuality Volume 1: An Introduction and History of Sexuality Volume 3: The Care of the Self (Also available on Amazon.com).

Miguel Llora

Good Use of Leisure
Although it is not as theoretically courageous, The Use of Pleasure is tenfold more interesting and approachable than the first volume in this trilogy on the history of sexuality.

Foucault delves deep into therecesses of our occidental world by attempting to answer the question,"Why is it that sexuality has become morally problematic?"Whyand when did we attribute a negativity to certain sexualities?And whatdoes this imply about sexuality itself?

Foucault works with irresistiblesources (e.g. Plato's Republic; Hippocrates' Ancient Medicine) in an effortto reconstruct the Hellenic approach to sexuality.The result: a clear andfascinating delineation of the similarities and differences between modernsexual consciousness and "pagan license". ... Read more

Book Description
In these two essays, two of the most important French thinkers of our time reflect on each other's work. In so doing, novelist/essayist Maurice Blanchot and philosopher Michel Foucault develop a new perspective on the relationship between subjectivity, fiction, and the will to truth. The two texts present reflections on writing, language, and representation which question the status of the author/subject and explore the notion of a "neutral" voice that arises from the realm of the "outside." This book is crucial not only to an understanding of these two thinkers, but also to any overview of recent French thought.

Michel Foucault (1927-1984) was the holder of a chair at the College de France. Among his works are Madness and Civilization, The Order of Things, Discipline and Punish, and The History of Sexuality Maurice Blanchot, born in 1907, is a novelist and critic. His works include Death Sentence, Thomas the Obscure, and The Space of Literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Compelling Examination of the Space of the Writer
Any fan of Foucault or Blanchot should greatlyappreciate these two short homages.Maurice Blanchot was originaly a literary critic who later wrote fictions, philosophical essays, and unusual hybrids of the two.Acontemporary and friend of Levinas, his work has had a huge impact on postWWII literature and continental philosophy.With astonishingly articulatelanguage (as translated by Massumi), Foucault offers both a insightfulcommentary on Blanchot and an idea of what means to exit in the space ofwriting fiction. It is difficult to categorize Foucaultswriting;perphaps he is best known as a writer who encouraged a modified(archealogical) method ofexamining history, and using this methodprolifically wrote social/cultural/philosophical commentary.Blanchotwrites on Foucaults writing with clarity and appreciation.If you areunfamiliar with these authors, this book makes for a good introduction;these writers may change the way you think, and you should read more. Ifyou know these authors then you should definitely sympathize with thehomage aspect: it's a great quick read (though you will probably need toread the layered language five times, and again late in life.) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

read it
This book has dramatically changed the way I conceptualize reality.It is hard to follow but incredibly insightful. It will hurt to get through but once you do, you might consider practising your best Mr.Universe pose and claiming -- in the words of the the "Governator" --"No pain, no gain."

I recommend the following steps to understanding this book:
1) read once;
2) see a psychiatrist;
3) read again;
4) think;
5) read again
6) understand.

Im only considering step two. I might just skip it and go strait to step 3.

Good luck.

Difficult but worth it
This book is one of the most important philosophy texts of the 20th century, if for no other reason than as an eye-opener. The text is a difficult read (although nowhere near as opaque as Derrida). The section on how our culture and, hence, our world-view has been "set" by accepted taxonomies is worth the read all by itself. I have come back to these comments again and again. Taxonomies are useful, but we need to understand the constraints on understanding imposed by such

Obtuse but Sharp
Foucault's stuff is hardly pleasure reading, but it rewards in other ways, more subtly.If you don't read Foucault without coming away with a deeper sense of the world around you, how power and knowledge is diffuse and not central, you would be a rare person.This book isn't so much concerned with power as it is the history of ideas, though.

Order ?
The order of things is the second book that I read by this late iconoclastic writer. I greatly enjoyed his stimulating and thought provoking "Discipline and Punish" (DP), yet after a struggle that I can only compare to my adolescent reading of the Brothers Karamazov, I ended this book with an overwhelming feeling of its futility.

This book started its life under the French title "les mots et les choses", things and words. In the introduction Foucault tries to provide the reader with both an explanation and a road map for this archaeological expedition. He explains that this book should be seen as an attempt towards describing the evolution of representation of the world in thoughts/words over the last 5 centuries. Not a small task, and not an easy one for that matter.

It is unfortunate that Foucault did not follow the approach that he chose in DP. In that book he chose one central leitmotiv, the spread of discipline from the military throughout an increasingly complex society, and could leave the "main road" at many instances without the risk of the reader getting lost. This book dearly misses such a backbone. Even worse: whenever Foucault seems to suggest one, he willfully/deviously/confusingly immediately takes an unannounced turn. For example in the introduction he goes in detail about the representation of the world in a language of words. OK you think, that sets us on track of a history of the world with Kant at a critical juncture. Yet in the first chapter we suddenly get a cold shower of a completely chaotic and overwrought description of a Velasquez painting, that has been done much better using less than 10% of the number of words, and is at complete odds with the goals set in the introduction.

Next, Foucault visits Cervantes' masterpiece. He describes Don Q. as representing man before arrival of the stage of distinction between things and their representations. Cute of course, but wasn't Cervantes fictitious book meant as a comedy. On top of that, one cannot help but consider Cervantes own representation of the first part of Don Q. in the second part of the novel a much clearer exploration of the subject of representation than Foucault's.

However, inspired by Don Q., Mickey F. chooses his own collection of windmills and goes on a quest that has way more in common with a self-gratulatory/-exploratory/-gratifying acid trip, than the archaeological quest that he promised. Purposely mentioning Kant as the gatekeeper between to eras, but wasting disproportionate amounts of words on some often obscure lesser gods, Foucault could not have done a better job in helping a well-intentioned reader to get lost in this onanistic swamp.

As such, finishing this book became an increasingly aggravating and futile struggle. In despite of all his cunning and virtuosity, it is just a clear impression of blind vanity that remains. Too bad, Michel. A brain -certainly such a good one, as you had- is a terrible thing to waste.

Seminal work of French Structuralism
As much as Foucault would have hated the label, this book is one of the core texts that anchor the French Structuralist school of thought.So, what does that mean exactly?Well, it means that style is as important, if not more so, than substance.So let me begin with style.

The style of the book is what you're likely to notice most immediately.The Structuralists are famous for subordinating lucidity and logical rigor for what is sometimes called "vast erudition."Vast erudition is that set of decidedly French stylistic elements that include such frequently beautiful techniques as intentional obscurity of meaning; undisciplined, looping, rambling metaphors which go on for pages and pages; flowery, arcane rhetoric; and more neologisms than the French Academy could possibly record.In short, Foucault uses 100 words to say what he could have said in 10, but it is great fun to read despite its difficulty.Trust me, if you didn't get it, probably he didn't intend for you to.And what critics like to hail as erudition is sometimes nothing more than purposeful obscurity and literary name dropping.Daniel Boorstin is as erudite as any French Structuralist, but he is infinitely more lucid.

Now, there's the substance.Foucault's essential thesis is that science is a front for an unconscious network of order relating ALL branches of human knowledge.The thesis is, if anything, an epistemological statement.Typical of modern French scholarship in general, this book cuts a wide interdisciplinary swath through arts and sciences to show how seemingly unrelated fields of human knowledge--biology, economics and language, for example--are really empirical manifestations of the same human process.At the heart of the matter is the notion that all of human knowledge is socially constructed, ignorant of the submerged "order of things" that joins it under the surface.Hence, we must discover this order by means of digging, by means of "archaeology."

So, don't worry about deciphering every sentence.Once you get the essential ideas (they're in the Preface), sit back and enjoy Foucault's collage of words and thoughts. ... Read more

Book Description
I would like to distinguish between the 'history of ideas' and the 'history of thought.' The history of ideas involves the analysis of a notion from its birth, through its development, and in the setting of other ideas, which constitute its context. The history of thought is the analysis of the way an unproblematic field of experience becomes a problem, raises discussions and debate, incites new reactions, and induces crisis in the previously silent behaviors, practices, and institutions. It is the history of the way people become anxious, for example, about madness, about crime, about themselves, or about truth.

Comprised of six lectures delivered, in English, by Michel Foucault while teaching at Berkeley in the Fall of 1983, Fearless Speech was edited by Joseph Pearson and published in 2001. Reviewed by the author, it is the last book Foucault wrote before his death in 1984 and can be read as his last testament. Here, he positions the philosopher as the only person able to confront power with the truth, a stance that boldly sums up Foucault's project as a philosopher.

Still unpublished in France, Fearless Speech concludes the genealogy of truth that Foucault pursued throughout his life, starting with his investigations in Madness and Civilization, into the question of power and its technology. The expression "fearless speech" is a rough translation of the Greek parrhesia, which designates those who take a risk to tell the truth; the citizen who has the moral qualities required to speak the truth, even if it differs from what the majority of people believe and faces danger for speaking it.

Parrhesia is a verbal activity in which a speaker expresses his personal relationship to truth through frankness instead of persuasion, truth instead of flattery, and moral duty instead of self-interest and moral apathy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An inspiring read that deserves more attention
This compact volume makes a good read and a great gift to any thinking person.A series of transcribed lectures, Fearless Speech introduces the notion of parrhesia - roughly "telling of the unvarnished truth" - as it has developed from Greek thought onwards.Foucault, acting here as the master historian of ideas, is precise and erudite, his language is clear, and his story inspires.The discussion begins with the origins of the word in early Greek thought and its use by Euripides in tragedy, and then moves on to discuss the place of parrhesia in democratic institutions, and ultimately its practices and its games.

Parrhesia is a type of speech that is neither rhetoric nor dialectic, though it has historically occupied an important space among both - forming perhaps a trialectic.Parrhesia is a species of truth that mandates its own telling, in a quasi-spiritual fashion if need be: the parrhesiastes, or truth-teller, is one who puts him- or herself at considerable risk, including the risk of death, with his or her words.It can easily be seen that parrhesia is an essential antecedent to criticism and critical theory, but it is also ubiquitous in many forms of discourse.The Jeremiads of prophetic speech, the jokes of court jesters, Che's formative travelogues around South America, Taussig's defacing messages to the academy, and the best-selling literature of Rushdie that was in the 1990s so ill-received by the Muslim community - all of these are examples of this powerful discourse-form at work and play.

I first ran across the term in Arpad Szakolczai's excellent volume on Weber and Foucault, "Parallel Life-Works."After reading FS, I was frankly amazed that the idea is not more widely discussed in university rhetoric classes.The concept is extremely fruitful, first of all, for anyone interested in rhetoric, dialectic, philosophy, and law.Moreover, for anyone studying Foucault's life or epistemic universe (orders of discourse, manifestation, dispositifs, and so on), parrhesia needs to be on the list of terms.For those interested in neo-Enlightenment thinkiers like Habermas and the communicative ethics thinkers like Benhabib and Miller, Rorty and the pragmatists, or the large and diverse group of scholars studying ideology (such as Teun van Dijk) within Critical Discouse Analysis, it's also a very worthwhile read.

Most of all, though, the book shows everyone - and not just the intellectual - that parrhesia needs to be incorporated within our everyday modes of thinking and speaking.To what extent are "we" speaking, and to what extent is ideology speaking through us?What power does our speech reproduce, and what might it transform?Is our speech emancipatory?Does it contribute to the complexity of thought?Does it leave more questions open than closed?Do we break new ground, or just re-hash the useless play of words?This is a book that will fuel the mind and inspire questions like these like few others I've recently read.If you're tired of reading about the "end of history" and post-post-everything thought, try this slim volume.Highly recommended. ... Read more

Book Description
The Hermeneutics of the Subject is the third volume in the collection of Michel Foucaults lectures at the Collge de France, where Foucaults candid and wide-ranging lectures influenced groundbreaking works like The History of Sexuality and Madness and Civilization. In the lectures comprising this volume, Foucault focuses on how the self and the care of the self have been conceived during the period of antiquity, beginning with Socrates. The problems of the ethical formation of the self, Foucault argues, form the background for modern conceptions of the self and remain at the center of contemporary moral thought. Engaging and provocative, The Hermeneutics of the Subject reveals Foucault at the height of his powers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Past of Philosophy Meets The Future of Our Time
I repute this book one of the best because the class take the moment that Foucault discover subjectivity as more powerful than power, when secularization leave people free of religion. The book, as the other of collection, was done taking the tapes and Foucault`s class notes and rebuilding the class lesson. It`s very detailed, more than 550 pages. Foucault works with I and II century of Roman Empire, but he put it in perspective. Greeks and Roman Republic, Roman transition and then Roman democratic empire. He follows how epicureans, cynics and stoics reacts face the rise of Roman Empire. He tries to distinguish the parrhesi­a (fearless speech and freedom) as a different dimension between the Platonic epistrophe and the Christian metanoia vis a vis the transformation of the relationship of self care and self knowledge. After the rise of empire, public life becomes mundanity and the relationship between self care with self knowledge includes a conversion to yourself that differentiate parrhesi­a from epistrophe and metanoia. The last two had erased completely the meaning of parrhesía in the ancient world, deleting an original sense of truth and subjectivity where the subject was tied with the truth talked by himself. Epistrophe was the reminiscence of a past world/life, and the metanoi­a was the conversion to a new world/life, but parrhesia was the conversion to himself understood as the present and truth world/life. I think that the book is the Foucault`s "What Is The Philosophy?" The pages where he opposes paidea and parrhesi­a are a lesson about the difference between truth in mass media and truth in web media; the truth of blogosphere, forums and alike. The rescue of parrhesi­a`s meaning in the ancient society is a very actual problem and show ours spiritual and social troubles in a new light. The edition has a Frédéric Gros` essay in the end of the book that try to contextualize the Course and talk about all material in the Foucault`s notebooks that he will use in the last book about the flesh, and never used but in this class.

How philosophy matters...Foucault at his best!
With wit and subtlety, Foucault tells here the story of how Western philosophy became progressively disengaged from life -- and, more importantly, what (and how) philosophy sought to teach us before that fatal split.The result is a long but consistently engaging series of historical meditations on the relevance of philosophy to everyday life.For those of us who never had a chance to attend Foucault's lectures (at the College de France 500 audience members reportedly overflowed a 300 person lecture hall in order to hear Foucault make these weekly presentations of his previous year's research), reading these clearly translated lectures makes for a truly mind expanding experience, and I found these to be the most stimulating of the three lectures courses translated so far (although "Society Must be Defended" is really wonderful too!) ... Read more

Book Description
The definitive edition of Foucault's articles, interviews, and seminars.

Few philosophers have had as strong an influence on the twentieth century as Michel Foucault. His work has affected the teaching of any number of disciplines and remains, twenty years after his death, critically important. This newly available edition is drawn from the complete collection of all of Foucault's courses, articles, and interviews, and brings his most important work to a new generation of readers.

Power (edited by James D. Faubion) draws together Foucault's contributions to what he saw as the still-underdeveloped practice of political analysis. It covers the domains Foucault helped to make part of the core agenda of Western political culture—medicine, psychiatry, the penal system, and sexuality. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not Just for Foucault Fanatics
This collection of Foucault's essays, lectures, interviews, and editorials, offers even the casual reader of Foucault welcome insights into his methods, his intellectual biography and the development of his own methods.Most valuable perhaps are interviews collected from various magazines where he is challenged by his interviewers to respond to their criticisms and the criticisms of others.In one, for instance, Foucault tries hard to correct those who read his works as a totalizing critique of capitalism, or the current penal system, or the mental institution. He insists that his works are only intended to be seen as the history of various specific institutions and that those critics and followers who are tempted to project his findings onto current practices distort his intent.Whether or not you believe him, his defense of his method and his avowed intent are compelling.In another, he also quickly and cogently characterizes his two main intellectual influences, Hegelism and phenomenology, explains why he rejected these particular philosophical trends, but how they nevertheless challenged him to arrive at his own agenda and the course of his studies.Throughout Foucault is ruthlessly honest about his own failings -- for instance his lack of knowledge about the Frankfurt School, and thoughtful -- his appraisal of the problems that inhere in national healthcare programs, which he generally supports but with interesting qualifications.The editorials, while they address issues that may seem remote or dated, demonstrate that he was actively engaged in the politics of his time, and show how he applies his analytical methods to current events.Some selections will be of interest only to the Foucault fanatic or to his biographers, which is the reason for the four star, instead of the five-star, rating. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Book Description
The definitive edition of Foucault's articles, interviews, and seminars.

Few philosophers have had as strong an influence on the twentieth century as Michel Foucault. His work has affected the teaching of any number of disciplines and remains, twenty years after his death, critically important. This newly available edition is drawn from the complete collection of all of Foucault's courses, articles, and interviews, and brings his most important work to a new generation of readers.

Aesthetics, Method and Epistemology (edited by James D. Faubion) surveys Foucault's diverse but sustained address of the historical forms and interplay of passion, experience, and truth. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

For nerds and for new comers
It is not so easy to determine where Foucault is attempting to go with his published books.In this sense, the books from "Madness and Civilization" to the 3rd "History of Sexuality" can be thought of as practical works that have specific institutional anddiscursive aims.Thus, they are short in explanation of the methodologyand instead such intentions are available as they are practiced in thetexts.For example, philosophers such as Nietzsche and Marx, to name afew, are hardly mentioned in Foucault's book; however, they are oftenevoked and utilised without obvious references or footnotes.As Deleuzeonce commented: Foucault doesn't say what to do, he just does it.

Thus,Foucault's occasional essays, covering academic journals, popular press,lectures, introductions, and so on, serve to clue us, the readers, as towhere Foucault is coming from, and, furthermore, in which direction histhought is heading.

This edition, covering Foucault's superb writingson literature, his mentors, music, as well as other philosophicalmovements, situates a thinker within an intellectual context from his veryown words.In "The Archaeology of Knowledge" Foucault begins bysaying "do not ask me who I am..."To be sure, with this volume,we can begin to better understand Foucault without the interface ofcommentators and scholars.Directness of discourse is an important elementin Foucault's thought...

Although much of the pieces that appear herehave been previously translated and released in a variety of formats, Ipredict that any scholar or occasional reader would be pleased to acceptthis redundancy for the very convenience that this collectionpresents.

Some most interesting pieces include, the previously hard tofind Foucault's response to Derrida's reading of "Madness andCivilization"; Foucault's responses to the Epistemology circle; and anilluminating interview in which Foucault situates his thought in 20thCentury French intellectual life.In addition, this collection includespopular 'staple' such as "Theatrum Philosophicum,""Nietzsche, Freud, Marx," and "Nietzsche, Genealogy,History," all of which provide endless insight into Foucault evendespite numerous re-readings.

While serious followers of Foucault'sworks would benefit greatly from this collection, this would also serve asa good introduction to Foucault--maybe second only to the cartoon books onFoucault!

And to close: if Nietzsche was the greatest philosophicalstylist, this collection demonstrates conclusively that Foucault was aclose second...

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Michel Foucault , i think should be read by anyone read and liked Nietzsche. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Obtuse but important
Foucault is not a light read - you will spend several hours just trying to interpret this text.His wording is unusual and complicated, and sentences can run on for almost a paragraph.Sometimes you'll just want to tear your hair out.

Nonetheless, this book is important.The theories Foucault presents in this book, while nearly impossible to cite correcly, do reappear in many modern texts, especially ones about modern literature or the academy.My suggestion is you read it with the assistence of others, preferably including someone with more academic experience (i.e. a professor.)

Foucault on Facts
Viewed against the background of Foucault's other books, *The Archaeology of Knowledge* is a curious work. In it, Foucault not only explicates the results of his early books on madness, medicine, and the history of the human sciences: he also offers programmatic statements that link up his methods with the main stream of 20th-century French historical researches. The *episteme* linking seemingly disparate fields of inquiry is here explicitly presented against the background of Ferdinand Braudel's *duree*, and other famed devices for recontextualizing historical facts. For Foucault is intent on demonstrating his method without reference to (*against*) the philosophical luminaries that had until then monopolized such meta-theory.

The uninformed, and perhaps some of the informed, may be surprised to find Foucault actually considering the fact itself: hardly a promising beginning for showing how everything seemingly natural about social life hinges on systems of power. But it is precisely the historical fact that Foucault is concerned with, the dry, value-free content of the "archive": he is interested in the conditions of the possibility of grasping the events of the world in the manner of the historian, and proceeds to elaborate a system for comparing and construing such data without reference to processes of consciousness or any other valorizing quantity from outside history.

He proceeds to do this by elaborating a pragmatics of discourse quite unlike linguistics of the Saussurean (or Gricean) variety, studying how contexts of information combine to produce a happening intelligible as an event, not only as a linguistic counter or evidence of an intention. His analysis strongly resembles that of the celebrated Thomas Kuhn, who in truth aimed not to relativize science but to explain its true "background" in actual scientific practice. Drawing many examples from (and correcting naivete in) his books *History of Madness*, *Birth of the Clinic* and *The Order of Things*, Foucault attempts to show how an intellectual history can carefully collate and juxtapose historical information without imposing an idealizing "mentality" on the originators of a discourse.

Recapping as it does his work of the Sixties, fans of Foucault's analyses in *Discipline and Punish* and *The History of Sexuality* may expect this book represents only "transitional" views of Foucault's, later discarded in favor of a full-blooded Nietzschean pursuit of power relations. But "genealogical" theories are not ignored here, particularly in Foucault's inaugural address for the College de France, "The Order of Discourse", generously included at the end of this volume. It is true that Foucault's theory does not represent the program of a "history of truth" elaborated in "Truth and Juridical Forms", early lectures on the history of the penal system included in volume 3 of the New Press's *Essential Works*. But by the same token those interested in the French social theorists who preceded Foucault will find that Foucault's engagement with their problems, especially those of his teacher Althusser, is here much more explicit than elsewhere.

In conclusion, this book is unlikely to grab you unless you have already made a significant investment in Foucault, or "contemporary" history more generally. But for anyone who has indeed spent some time thinking about such things, this book is an anodyne statement of important and influential views about history and how it is done.

Indispensible
Do not be fooled by those who dismiss this as a mere curiousity in Foucault's oeuvre.This difficult work is absolutely essential for understanding his central concept of 'discourse'.All of his works are better understood after a careful reading of this difficult work; this is true even for the later 'geneaological' works.

Archaeology, the Archean, the Archaic, and the Archive
The Conclusion of this book (Chapter V) is perhaps the most interesting.Foucault appears to be corresponding with an undisclosed someone, wether with himself as a self critique, or with a critic.I won't put asside the possibility he is coversing with someone from the Tavistock Inst.; as Tavistock Publications Lim. was the first place of translation for this text.If he had not suceeded, in his archaeology of knowledge, an undermining of structuralism, with the thesis on human discourse, then perhaps it is because of a lack of conviction on part of this "someone" or on part of himself.

Understanding the implication of Foucault's thought process from a first read requires a refflective reader and in many ways requires a far-reaching mind from the start.This work is composed of a terminal plethora of architectures and teleological plethoras of exemplifications from science and history. Economics, stats, documents, records, and items from all discourses are examined and presented as artifacts of discursive knowledge.The Archeaology itself is the thematic for the Archive, and the archive is the preservatory of knowledge, that such discursive knowledge is preserved is archaeology.Foucault's task then is to undermine the archives of knowledge and present that knowledge back upon the structural framework of rational discourse.With observational power and radical ability, Foucault goes beyond the framework and invisibly subordinates it's needs to be observed and it's intention to be ritcheous (ritcheous in all that it accounts for, and ritcheous of the observer.)From the most primordial archean, to the revival of the primal archaic state, to the archaology of all knowledge, Foucault shows that in a way discourses built upon historical facts are like artifacts themselves.Here in the conclusion we see that the problematic of language (langue) as the derivational principal of discourses, cannot be made paletable (literaly!)

And so the audition fails because language or the "langue" is not sufficiently constructed for what it represents in discursive practice.At the zenith of the teleological project,when temporal conceptualization extinguishes itself from being quantified into being qualified, at the last quarter of the era,perhaps this work will be gleamed from the resevoire and conrgessively discussed.

Another (difficult) chapter in Foucault's oeuvre
"Archaeology Of Knowledge" finds Foucault at his barest, trying to build up his own theory.Like others have said, it is fascinating to see how much he tries to encompass and how extremely difficult his own enterprise is.Foucault spends many pages trying to explain to us what he means by "discoursive formation", "object formation", "formation of concepts", etc., and the place where his own theory stands vis-à-vis a so-called "history of ideas".You can learn lots from this book, because, like myself, sometimes you get lost in Foucault's magistral writing, his fabulous way of weaving history and thus cannot clearly follow his own particular method of research.If you want to see some of his (earlier, almost stricly discourse-oriented) key concepts clarified, reading this book will prove very fruitful.As always, you're left with a lot of questions and with a distinctive feeling of "now what?".But then again, that's what's so utterly beautiful and engaging about Foucault... he forces you to think for yourself and provides you of the right tools to do it.
I read the spanish translation of this book so I can't comment on the english one, but the contents of this book are priceless. ... Read more

Book Description
"Clare O'Farrell is to be congratulated on producing a truly magnificent book on the work of Michel Foucault. There are details, insights and observations that will engage the specialist and there is an extensive documentation of Foucault's output. If there is a more comprehensive book on Foucault's work I have yet to see it. I anticipate those teaching and taking courses on Foucault's work will find Clare O'Farrell's book to be an invaluable resource'"- Barry Smart, University of Portsmouth

"Dr. Clare O'Farrell has written a marvelous introduction to this Foucault for that ever growing number of readers who are working in what has come to be designated as cultural studies. This volume captures the penetrating interdisciplinary concerns that have made Foucault a guide to so many beyond the frontiers of philosophy and history, beyond the borders of the academic community itself. O'Farrell is an excellent guide to Foucault's exploration of culture, highlighting, as she does, the characteristic insights of his learning: the instability of cultural forms of order, the subversive potential of historical analyses, the variety of true discourses within history, and his commitment to social justice. O'Farrell reveals Foucault as he is: the engaged moralist who survived the twentieth century's systems of total explanation. This is an excellent introduction for the general reader to a passionate mind that continues to spread its influence'"- James Bernauer, Boston College

Michel Foucault's work is one of the most influential sources of ideas in the humanities and social sciences today. Clare O'Farrell offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to Foucault's enormous, diverse and challenging output. Her book provides a range of practical tools and a reference work for readers who wish to understand and apply his ideas at both introductory and advanced levels. This volume includes:

- a discussion of Foucault's situation in the contemporary context exploring his role as an iconic thinker, with clear explanations as to why his work is so difficult to come to grips with, and also importantly, why it is of interest to so many people.

- the location of Foucault's work within its own historical, social and political setting.

- brief summaries in chronological order of all of Foucault's major works, including the more recently published volumes of lectures.

- the organization of Foucault's work around five distinct but interrelated series of assumptions which underpin his world view: namely order, history, truth, power and ethics. Ideas for which he is well-known, such as archaeology, genealogy, discourse, discipline, governmentality, the subject and others are defined and discussed within the framework of these five assumptions.

- a chronology of Foucault's life, work and times.

- a very extensive list of key concepts in Foucault's work with detailed references pointing to where the relevant material can be found in his writings.

- a wide-ranging list of resources and a bibliography of Foucault's work for easy consultation.

Customer Reviews (1)

From the cover:
From back cover of book:
This book brings together a selection of essays by leading Foucault scholars on a variety of themes within the history, thought and practice of theology. Revealing the diverse ways that the work of Michel Foucault (1926-1984) has been employed to rethink theology in terms of power, discourse, sexuality, and the politics of knowledge, the authors examine power and sexuality in the church in late antiquity (Castelli, Clark, Schuld), raise questions about the relationship between theology and politics (Bernauer, Leezenberg, Caputo), consider new challenges to the nature of theological knowledge in terms of Foucault's critical project (Flynn, Cutrofello, Beadoin, Pinto) and rethink theology in terms of Foucault's work on the history of sexuality (Carrette, Jordan, Mahon). This book demonstrates, for the first time, the influence and growing importance of Foucault's work for contemporary theology. ... Read more

Book Description
When he died of an AIDS-related condition in 1984, Michel Foucault had become the most influential French philosopher since the end of World War II. His powerful studies of the creation of modern medicine, prisons, psychiatry, and other methods of classification have had a lasting impact on philosophers, historians, critics, and novelists the world over. But as public as he was in his militant campaigns on behalf of prisoners, dissidents, and homosexuals, he shrouded his personal life in mystery.

In The Lives of Michel Foucault -- written with the full cooperation of Daniel Defert, Foucault's former lover -- David Macey gives the richest account to date of Foucault's life and work, informed as it is by the complex issues arising from his writings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The Space between a life and a biography
Michel Foucault is certainly not an easy person to write a biography of but "The Lives of Michel Foucault" does not rise to the task. It seems to me this might be a good biography of Foucault for French philosophers who like to read in English. The author breaks about every rule about elements of style and maddeningly insists on only referring to Foucault's works in French leaving the reader in need of a French dictionary. For references to the works of some (not all) other French authors who inspired Foucault the author condescends to add a parenthetical English translation. Perhaps most problematic is the author's unwillingness or inability to help the reader understand some of Foucault's truly astonishing insights that re-made structuralist studies and founded post-structuralist studies. A disappointing effort.

A Life of Pure Engagement
David Macey's "The Lives of Michel Foucault" - 1993 is by far the best of the three significant biographies that have thus far appeared (there is James Miller's "The Passion of Michel Foucault" - 1993 and Betsy Wing's translation of Didier Eribon's "Michel Foucault" - 1991 all available on Amazon.com). For Macey, the "silence" of Foucault is something to be taken seriously, not as theoretically authorized avoidance of truth telling, but rather as the bewilderment of a man; a real man situated in his time and place, caught between different roles and self-conceptions. Macey tells Foucault's story clearly and without fanfare. What is truly scholarly helpful in Macey's telling is a rigorous archive of how Foucault, this most tenacious detractor of institutional power, was ironically the beneficiary of the French intellectual establishment, and how this retiring scholar proved remarkably proficient at seizing political moments for stepping up onto the public stage. Macey's intensive research and detailed textual elucidation provides the type of documentary support that is often lacking in James Miller's "passionate" book.Macey's book, is conversely, is a cautious account of Foucault's doings, written with expertise of a careful study and a sharp spirit of defensiveness, as might be expected from a biography that has been duly "authorized" by Foucault's surviving companion Daniel Defert. As opposed to Miller's very good biography that offered a portrait of Foucault the man and thinker - Macey's rendition pays attention to the day-to-day goings on offers the reader a more vivid picture of Foucault as a political activist. Macey painstakingly explores the early 1970s - when Foucault plunged into a life of sustained political involvement. I am grateful to all three biographers for making Foucault come alive as a person and more understandable as a scholar. Macey though, is really good at taking Foucault's anti-humanist perspective and developing it, not as a theme or explanation of Foucault's life but rather as a topic of study.According to Macey, no French theoretician has had a more recondite or permanent influence on American thinking then Michel Foucault. Foucault, who been dead for more than a decade now may no longer be the first name to be dropped at academic circles and seminars, but the terms he made famous, terms like `discourse' and `networks of power' - often misappropriated and dropped at a moments notice get a very good treatment in this book. Macey is really helpful in taking the often cryptic writing of Foucault and makes it accessible to the unfamiliar - and at times even familiar - Foucault scholar. According to Macey, the cult of Foucault, matured in its impact because Foucault and his cohort had intellectual claims beyond the reading of "texts." Going beyond the often dead ended practice of "deconstruction" practiced by such luminaries as Lacan, Derrida and Levi-Strauss.

Foucault was shaping an enterprise in anti-humanist, anti-essentialist "discourse." In sync with many other strains in the thought of his continentalcontemporaries - with Kant, Nietzsche and Heidegger were acknowledged as his primary influences while Althusser, Canguilhem and Barthes were included in the mix - Foucault's ideas about the essential constitution of civil society drew on a ardently anti-liberal attack on the Enlightenment. Far from being the light of reason to shed light and resolve problems surrounding the human condition, the Enlightenment according to Foucault replaced the ancien regime model of social marginalization and class demarcations with a better mousetrap of domination, which was simply a modernized technology of social control. It would no longer be possible to look to the obvious figures of sovereignty and privilege - embodied in king and counts - for the telling signs of "power." Power was beginning to make its way into the ordinary institutions of social life.The reigning king of the humanist project was still Sartre, who became the locus ofFoucault's efforts. Sartre, according to Foucault stood for a tired philosophy of "Marxist humanism." Sartre did not see, in Foucault's view that humanism was inevitably the soiled result of the new technology of domination that sprang up with the Enlightenment. Sartre, according to Foucault, was the poster boy of the Enlightenment. Macey spells out how according to Foucault, Humanism was just the happy facade put on the medical and scientific lessening of the human being into an itemized, categorized and catalogued object of a detached "gaze" - recognition of this phenomenon according to Foucault should put to rest any ebullience for the communitarian didactic discourse of the Sartrean "politics of commitment." More openly then does Miller (or Eribon for that matter), Macey recognizes Foucault's ongoing struggle against Sartre's "gaze," against any other interpretative or evaluative power. What was really happening, Foucault posits was the construction of a "networks" of power - though one was not supposed to ask "`whose' power?" Power, this new social fixation with discipline and surveillance, became its own rationale according to Foucault. As I mentioned above, power was not to be found in leaders or social organizations or parties or in any given social structure, but was rather a kind of "discourse, " a set of terms or symbolic representations that connect, in an abstract way, the given instances of discipline and surveillance at work in social life. For Foucault, to fight a diffuse "power" was to be able to pick any point of attack in any institutional setting and do the work of social revolution. Foucault is not keen to lay out a recipe for such transgression but his strength is in critique. Macey's strength is making this often baroque author accessible - the Macey that I appreciate.

Miguel Llora

The best currently available biography of Foucault
david macey's biography of michel foucault is both the best researched and the most carefully analysed account of foucault's life currently available. While it lacks both the interpretative drive behind james miller's "the passion of michel foucault" (who reads foucault as a nietzscheian), and the treatment of friendships and specific themes throughout foucault's life given in "michel foucault et ses contemporains" (didier eribon's second work on foucault), macey is incredibly erudite, very well-balanced and a solid reader of foucault.macey recounts many more details of mf's life than any other account, and doesn't take foucault's self-reflective moments for granted as correct interpretations of his past actions and thought (Foucault gave tons of interviews, where he tended to reflect on his past works from his present perspective - so he could say that he had always been working on power etc, when this argument could undermine tensions and different trends in his work). he gives a solid, if long account of foucault's intellectual development, manages to place him in as much of a context as the biographical genre permits and, within this context, is mildly critical of his subject.macey is also a fun read. perhaps not as much as miller, but he certainly provides better balanced -and more interesting to read- accounts (than both miller and eribon) of foucault's works as well as of his life and homosexuality

nonetheless, there are important criticisms to be made. there's a certain elegiac tone throughout much of the book which is not totally appropriate to foucault's thought and perhaps even to foucault himself. this tone complicates the problem of writing a biography of a thinker without treating him through his own lens of comprehending "the subject," "the author," "the self" etc. in other words, the account is stylistically rather conservative, something that might lead readers to doubt the level of depth at which foucault is approached. and indeed, though the depth is considerable, the approach is too conservative to catch some of the more radical tones in foucault especially as regards his "post-modern" tendencies (foucault was suspicious of that term).

still, this is a very good biography and a good reading of MF, that mixes well his life and his thought.worth reading, even (especially) if you've read other accounts. it complements them well and improves on them considerably.

The mandarin philisopher ...
Eloqently and aesthetically written for writers, this is the book for those who delight in literature. The book transubstantiate the reader:Macey establishes a post-humous dialogue in which the reader uncovers thearcheoalogy of Foucault, his experiences as a writer, politician andphilosopher. The author takes the reader through the labyrinth at thecentre of which Foucault lurks as a minotaur. It uncoils the myth ofliterature's wordily genesis in which writing is discussed extensively andgiven the authority of infinity, as an original force that was there fromthe beginning before things unfolded into the natural world of things.Foucault died from intellectual gibbosity-"inflammation of thecerebrum".

Trueman Myaka Tel:0927 31 303 6466 Fax: 0927 31 303 4493

The mandarin philisopher ...
Eloqently and aesthetically written for writers, this is the book for those who delight in literature. The book transubstantiate the reader:Macey establishes a post-humous dialogue in which the reader uncovers thearcheoalogy of Foucault, his experiences as a writer, politician andphilosopher. The author takes the reader through the labyrinth at thecentre of which Foucault lurks as a minotaur. It uncoils the myth ofliterature's wordily genesis in which writing is discussed extensively andgiven the authority of infinity, as an original force that was there fromthe beginning before things unfolded into the natural world of things.Foucault died from intellectual gibbosity-"inflammation of thecerebrum".

Trueman Myaka Tel:0927 31 303 6466 Fax: 0927 31 303 4493 ... Read more

Book Description
This introduction and commentary to Kant's least discussed work, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, is the dissertation that Michel Foucault presented in 1961 as his doctoral thesis. It has remained unpublished, in any language, until now.

In his exegesis and critical interpretation of Kant's Anthropology, Foucault raises the question of the relation between psychology and anthropology, and how they are affected by time. Through a Kantian "critique of the anthropological slumber," Foucault warns against the dangers of treating psychology as a new metaphysics, explores the possibilities of studying man empirically, and reflects on the nature of time, art and technique, self-perception, and language. Extending Kant's suggestion that any empirical knowledge of man is inextricably tied up with language, Foucault asserts that man is a world citizen insofar as he speaks. For both Kant and Foucault, anthropology concerns not the human animal or self-consciousness but, rather, involves the questioning of the limits of human knowledge and concrete existence.

This long-unknown text is a valuable contribution not only to a scholarly appreciation of Kant's work but as the first outline of what would later become Foucault's own frame of reference within the history of philosophy. It is thus a definitive statement of Foucault's relation to Kant as well as Foucault's relation to the critical tradition of philosophy. By going to the heart of the debate on structuralist anthropology and the status of the human sciences in relation to finitude, Foucault also creates something of a prologue to his foundational The Order of Things. ... Read more

Book Description
It is impossible to imagine contemporary critical theory without the work of Michel Foucault. His radical reworkings of the concepts of power, knowledge, discourse and identity have influenced the widest possible range of theories and impacted upon disciplinary fields from literary studies to anthropology. Aimed at students approaching Foucault's texts for the first time, this volume offers:
* an examination of Foucault's contexts
* a guide to his key ideas
* an overview of responses to his work
* practical hints on 'using Foucault'
* an annotated guide to his most influential works
* suggestions for further reading.
Challenging not just what we think but how we think, Foucault's work remains the subject of heated debate. Sara Mills' Michel Foucault offers an introduction to both the ideas and the debate, fully equipping student readers for an encounter with this most influential of thinkers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Overpowering Foucault...
Sara Mills' text on Michel Foucault is part of a recent series put out by the Routledge Press, designed under the general editorial direction of Robert Eaglestone (Royal Holloway, University of London), to explore the most recent and exciting ideas in intellectual development during the past century or so. To this end, figures such as Martin Heidegger, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jacques Derrida, Paul Ricouer and other influential thinkers in critical thought are highlighted in the series, planned to include more than 21 volumes in all.

Mills' text, following the pattern of the others, includes background information on Foucault and his significance, the key ideas and sources, and Foucault's continuing impact on other thinkers. As the series preface indicates, no critical thinker arises in a vacuum, so the context, influences and broader cultural environment are all important as a part of the study, something with which Foucault would agree.

Why is Foucault included in this series? Foucault is probably second only to Jacques Derrida in influence on thinkers in the field of critical theory and cultural studies, and his impact has gone far beyond narrow intellectual confines to influence psychology, politics, literature, sociology, philosophy, linguistics, history and anthropology.Mills indicates that Foucault's primary focus is on issues of power, knowledge and discourse, with influence in the development of a lot of `posts' - post-modernism, post-colonialism, post-Marxism, post-structualism, etc.

Foucault often concentrated on the ignored, the forgotten or the overlooked in his studies.In looking at the written confession of a murderer from generations ago, or looking at prisoners in present society, Foucault looks not only at the way power operates in practical settings, but what underpins the kind of power relationships.Heavily influenced by the events of 1968, with various forms of war and open rebellion going on across the globe (including Foucault's native French society), he had an inherent distrust for the kinds of power and society relationships considered standard.His work with prisoners and those classified as mentally ill challenged prevailing notions of the intentions of incarceration and even classification - perhaps we can see even more clearly in today's mass-media-saturated society the inconsistencies, not only of application, but of intention in the development of considering who is a criminal (and what their punishment and rehabilitation is likely to be) and who is considered mentally ill - the shift care to confinement and isolation (effective removal) from society gains new meaning from Foucault's analysis.

Foucault looks at power from a very basic position, not that of macroscopic geopolitical entities, but rather interpersonal relationships on a more local level, even exploring the way society uses body and sexuality as a root resource in formulating power relationships.It is worth noting that this issue is over the idea of the `body', and not the `individual', which for Foucault are not strictly synonymous.Looking at the history of sexuality (the freer periods of sexual frankness vis-à-vis the more strict and reserved periods such as the Victorian age) leads to another set of power relations often internalised and often overlooked.

One of the useful features of the text is the side-bar boxes inserted at various points. For example, during the discussion on Foucault's development of Power and Institutions, there are brief discussions, set apart from the primary strand of the text, on the Marxist idea of ideology, developing further this idea should the reader not be familiar with it, or at least not in the way with which Foucault would be working with ideas derived from it. Each section on a key idea spans approximately twenty pages, with a brief summary concluding each, which gives a recap of the ideas (and provides a handy reference).Some of the concluding sections in this volume (unlike other volumes in the series) are not as handy as a recap, but do connect the primary ideas with the next chapter.

The concluding chapter, After Foucault, highlights some key areas of development in relation to other thinkers, as well as points of possible exploration for the reader. Foucault's thought vis-à-vis feminist thought is dramatic and interesting, given Foucault's generally androcentric (and often misogynistic) stance in writing - still the issues of power relations and society are crucial to feminist critique.His post-colonialist ideas, again springing from the reformulation of power relationships in society after a dominant, foreign power is displaced, influenced further thinkers such as Edward Said.Foucault has (perhaps unintentionally) become useful for the anti-psychiatric lobby, as Foucault sees much defined as madness to be social construct rather than actual ailment (Foucault saw talk-therapy as a kind of modernised `confessional').

There was only one point at which I had a serious disagreement with Mills in her analysis of Foucault.At one point in discussing his tendency toward not developing fully thought-out theories, she speculates that his kind of approach could possibly be used `to justify fascism or to deny the existence of the Holocaust'.I would disagree with this assessment, given that this would not in fact discredit systems of power, but merely replace one with another.If fascism or Holocaust-deniers were not a power-in-potential, that might be true.But then, this is a point upon which much discussion could continue!

As do the other volumes in this series, Mills concludes with an annotated bibliography of works by Foucault (primarily those available in authoritative English translation), works on Foucault, and even internet references.

While this series focuses intentionally upon critical literary theory and cultural studies, in fact this is only the starting point. For Foucault (as for others in this series) the expanse is far too broad to be drawn into such narrow guidelines, and the important and impact of the ideas extends out into the whole range of intellectual development. As intellectual endeavours of every sort depend upon language, understanding, and interpretation, the thorough comprehension of how and why we know what we know is crucial. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Useful Introduction
Briefly: I found this book a useful introduction to Foucault's writings and ideas. Sheridan goes through the major works (Madness and Civilization, The Birth of the Clinic, The Order of Things, The Archaeology of Knowledge, Discipline and Punish, and The History of Sexuality) and does a great job of discussing how they relate to the French originals and Foucault's lesser-known writings. Still, even Sheridan is not a very easy read, so the book will appeal more to academics and college/university students who seek a general understanding of Foucault. ... Read more

Book Description