Michel Foucault

Author profile

born

June 15, 1926 in Poitiers, France

died

June 25, 1984

website

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/foucault/

genre

Philosophy, History, Social Sciences

About this author

edit data

Michel Foucault was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas. He held a chair at the Collège de France with the title "History of Systems of Thought," and lectured at the University at Buffalo and the University of California, Berkeley.

Foucault is best known for his critical studies of social institutions, most notably psychiatry, medicine, the human sciences and the prison system, as well as for his work on the history of human sexuality. His writings on power, knowledge, and discourse have been widely influential in academic circles. In the 1960s Foucault was associated with structuralism, a movement from which he distanced himself. Foucault also rejected the poststructuralist and postmodernist labels later attributed...more

combine editions
Books by Michel Foucault

Average rating: 4.04 · 25,590 ratings · 1,252 reviews · 194 distinct works

	Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison 4.16 avg rating — 5,978 ratings — published 1975 — 34 editions	My rating:
	The History of Sexuality 1: An Introduction by Michel Foucault, Robert Hurley (Translator) 4.00 avg rating — 5,183 ratings — published 1976 — 30 editions	My rating:
	Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason 4.04 avg rating — 2,842 ratings — published 1961 — 29 editions	My rating:
	The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences 4.04 avg rating — 2,149 ratings — published 1966 — 27 editions	My rating:
	The Archaeology of Knowledge and The Discourse on Language by Michel Foucault, A.M. Sheridan Smith (Translator) 4.03 avg rating — 1,247 ratings — published 1969 — 21 editions	My rating:
	The History of Sexuality 2: The Use of Pleasure by Michel Foucault, Robert Hurley (Translator) 3.99 avg rating — 925 ratings — published 1984 — 16 editions	My rating:
	Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews & Other Writings 1972-77 by Michel Foucault, Colin Gordon 4.01 avg rating — 851 ratings — 5 editions	My rating:
	The Foucault Reader by Michel Foucault, Paul Rabinow (Editor) 3.92 avg rating — 730 ratings — published 1984 — 4 editions	My rating:
	The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception 3.92 avg rating — 597 ratings — published 1963 — 20 editions	My rating:
	This Is Not a Pipe by Michel Foucault, René Magritte (Illustrator), James Harkness (Editor, Translator) 3.88 avg rating — 621 ratings — 8 editions	My rating:

More books by Michel Foucault…

Series by Michel Foucault

The History of Sexuality (3 books)
by Michel Foucault, Robert Hurley (Translator)

3.99 avg rating — 6,637 ratings

Lectures at the Collège de France (7 books)
by Michel Foucault, Arnold I. Davidson (Editor), Graham Burchell (Translator)

4.20 avg rating — 1,074 ratings

Essential Works of Foucault (1954-1984) (3 books)
by Michel Foucault, Paul Rabinow, James D. Faubion (Editor), Robert Hurley (Translation)

4.22 avg rating — 458 ratings

Le gouvernement de soi et des autres (2 books)
by Michel Foucault, Arnold I. Davidson, Graham Burchell, Arnold I. I. Davidson (Editor)

4.38 avg rating — 26 ratings

Dits et écrits 1954-88 (2 volume) (2 books)
by Michel Foucault

4.33 avg rating — 9 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

tags: philosophy , wisdom

128 people liked it

“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

74 people liked it

“Knowledge is not for knowing: knowledge is for cutting.”
― Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader

58 people liked it

See all Michel Foucault's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
100+ Books in 2012: Meghan's 2010 List	100	177	Dec 31, 2010 11:37pm
Portugal: Divulgação de livros	63	308	Sep 16, 2011 03:35am
The Seasonal Read...: Spring Challenge 2012 Reading Plans	49	263	Apr 14, 2012 03:24pm
Serious About Books: Title Game	1172	38	May 22, 2012 04:01pm
One Million Pages...: Dimitra's One Million Pages	21	42	May 27, 2012 02:28pm
Bookish: * Bookish Banter	4174	416	11 hours, 50 min ago
Chicks On Lit: what are you reading.	9302	6575	6 hours, 28 min ago
The Next Best Boo...: The Title Game	16876	12089	1 hour, 51 min ago

More…