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Michel Foucault's work was described at his death as 'the most important event of thought in our century'. As a philosopher, historian and political activist, he certainly left behind an enduring and influential body of work, but is this acclaim justified? "Introducing Foucault" places his work in its turbulent philosophical and political context, and critically explores his mission to expose the links between knowledge and power in the human sciences, their discourses and institutions. This book explains how Foucault overturned our assumptions about the experience and perception of madness, sexuality and criminality, and the often brutal social practices of confinement, confession and discipline. It also describes Foucault's engagement with psychiatry and clinical medicine, his political activism and the transgressive aspects of pleasure and desire that he promoted in his writing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A little disappointing
I bought this book because generally the Introducing titles are pretty good starters, as well as providing a list of other books on their subjects in the back. And I wanted a general picture of Foucault's work.

However, I found the tone taken by Chris Horrocks in this introduction to be a little snarky.The book starts off well introducing Foucault's influences and seems gloss over an outline of Foucault's body of work, but getting into the meat of the book it becomes more and more clear that Horrocks clearly does not like Foucault and includes a bunch of superfluous details about his personal life.Ok Chris, so he was gay, I don't care. Honestly all I wanted was an unbiased introduction to Foucault's work and maybe an overview of a few of his texts, but when it comes down to it Horrocks doesn't really deliver. He seems to be more concerned with attacking the man's character and writing Foucault off than presenting Foucault's work in a concise manner especially near the end.This kind of writing might be acceptable in a critical article but not in an introduction.

In short, save your money and look elsewhere for an introduction to Foucault.

An odd little punk rock collage-comic.
This was an accidental find for me.I was looking up some "serious" philosophy for a discussion with a friend, and the bright colors and goofy cover struck me as... unusual, to say the least.

In the long run, it was definitely worth my time; in the way of truly intelligent things, it managed to be a lot more informative and complex than I initially expected.Not only did it give a clear and concise overview of Foucault, but it referred to at least a dozen other thinkers and artists, and explained how they had influenced and been influenced by Foucault.

As a side note, I also particularly appreciated the way it didn't dither around or hide from questionable material.I like a book that's equally ready to explain epistemes or leathersex.

I just hope that, somewhere out there, Philosophy professors are using this book in curriculum.It's the kind of thing that would get even the densest student excited and thinking.

Better introductions available
As someone who has studied Foucault, I can say (despite my adherence to his ideas to some degree) that he can be criticized and very convincingly by opponents.In fact, his conflicts with critics are quite entertaining.However, I do not expect his opponents (such as Chris Horrocks appears to be) to write an introduction to Foucault's work.It seemed odd as well that an art historian, and not a philosophical academic or critical theorist, wrote an introduction to Foucault but he explained the given texts fairly accurately.My problem is not whether or not to like Foucault but that the introduction to him was liberally peppered with ad hominem attacks on both his thought and life.Particularly, as another commentator has said, the 'straight-jacket' comment and the rest of the end sections go into a criticism of his thought and deviate from simply introducing Foucault into interjecting a collection of personal ideas and thoughts.Again, criticize him until you turn blue but do it in a place that is a more appropriate forum such as a critical reader or published article.

The many heads of Foucault
Let's dispense with the niceties. This is Foucault for Dummies. I think it says a lot about Foucault that his greatest work and ideas can be distilled into the most readable, digestible nuggets of information possible, supplemented with witty and incisive cartoons, and the man's work is still incomprehensible.

This is probably not fair, but I am beginning to become of the mind that there are Those Who Understand, and The Rest Of Us. Quite frankly, if you are one of TWU, then you don't really need INTRODUCING FOUCAULT. On the other hand, the thicket of reasoning that encompasses Foucault's ideas don't really suit themselves well for encapsulation and "nuggetizing" -- so that the captions to the cartoons often seem like intense bursts of Foucault-speak.

Still, if you are asking, "How do I expose myself to that wacky Foucault without actually having to read one of his gnarly texts?" INTRODUCING FOUCAULT is about as well as you can do for your cause. Wittier than Cliff's Notes, Horrocks does summarize the principal points behind what are perceived to be his major texts while placing each of these concepts within Foucault's biography. Once you get over the fact that artist Jevtic uses the same five bald-head icons to represent Foucault throughout the book, the coordination of the cartoons and the text is exceptional. Seeing Foucault's head as a rat may be one of the more base pleasures of this book, but Jevtic uses some interesting image manipulations to communicate Horrocks' interpretations in as lucid a manner as possible. This book needs its pictures.

Balanced Primer to a Post-Modern Icon
While Foucault has become a popular icon to postmodernists, his personal life and political judgements continue to offend, shock, and sometimes amuse conservative intellectuals. This concise biography provides brief summaries of his most important intellectual works, introduces some of his key concepts, and acknowledges the profoundly deluded political predictions of this controversial French philosopher. If the personal is political, then Foucault's private life as a hyper-sexual gay hedonist and seducer of young boys - and death from AIDS - can be seen as the logical consequences of his peculiar belief systems where there is no objectivity and everything is subjective.

This comic book biography explores the paradox of Foucault, one of the most influential modern philosophers, right from the first page. "Should we look at the life of the man himself, who as a boy wanted to be a goldfish, became a philosopher and historian, political activist, leather queen, bestseller, tireless campaigner for dissident causes? What about his literary skill, combined with painstaking historical inquiry, his excellence as a pasta cook, captivating lecturing style, passion for sex with men, occassional drug-taking, barbed sense of humour, competitiveness, fierce temper - and the fact that he came from a family of doctors and dearly loved his mother?" The cartoon of the bald intellectual includes the caption/quote from Foucault: "Do not ask who I am and do not ask me to remain the same." Fairness and multidimensional from the beginning.

While many academics will inevitably find this introduction too brief and too superficial, this thin and accessible book draws readers into Foucault's ideas, passions, and lives. Far more lively and engaging than than most secondary sources for undergraduate philosophy students, this black and white, adult comic book provides a comfortable entry point into some of the great intellectual debates of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.It also delights in contradictions and paradoxes.

Did you know that the man who subtley explored the connections between order and brutality promoted the new Islamic Government in Iran in 1979? How could a gay, leftist western intellectual support religious fanatics? "An Islamic government cannot restrict people's rights because it is bound by religious duty," claimed Foucault to reporters while visiting Tehran. "The people will know what is right." The harsh objective reality of public executions and stonings -including women who refused to wear the proscribed veil- soon silenced Foucault. The authors cover this embarrassing situation with an admirable directness on p.79. His other questionable political crusades are also examined in a sympathetic, yet critical light.

This thin book, digestible in a few hours, would make an excellent companion text for both undergraduate and graduate philosophy students confronted with reading a Foucault tome. It would be a valuable addition to college libraries and belongs on the bookshelves of postmodernists - and Foucault's critics. ... Read more

Product Description
This comprehensive assessment of Michel Foucault's later work responds to the contemporary crisis in ethics, focusing on the way Foucault attempts to bring together the two seemingly-incompatible spheres of ethics and aesthetics through his reassessment of the Greek tradition. The book argues that Foucault's exploration of the history of sexuality and his re-interpretation of the critical philosophical tradition combine to frame a new approach both to the way we understand the tasks of philosophy and to the way we live our lives. It is aimed at those working at the intersection of contemporary debates in philosophy, ethics, politics and cultural studies. ... Read more

Product Description
Derided and disregarded by many of his contemporaries, Michel Foucault is now regarded as probably the most influential thinker of the twentieth century, his work is studied across the humanities and social sciences.

Reading Foucault, however, can be a challenge, as can writing about him, but in Understanding Foucault, the authors offer an entertaining and informative introduction to his thinking. They cover all the issues Foucault dealt with, including power, knowledge, subjectivity and sexuality and discuss the development of his analysis throughout his work. Each topic is illustrated with simple, lucidly explained examples from popular culture so that students can see how to use Foucault's theories in their own writing.

Understanding Foucault is a `must read' for anyone tackling him for the first time.

Customer Reviews (1)

Accessable to a fault.
Foucault is one the greatest thinkers of the late 20th century. Unfortunately in 'Understanding Foucault' you don't get to find out why, rather the authors offer up a watered down mix of platitudes and dated examples that work to sully the good name of Foucault. I don't want to give you the wrong impression, this book certainly has its moments. Discipline and instruction (chapter 4) is certainly insightful as is History and geopolitics (chapter 7) but as an overall introduction to the work of Foucault you will very easily find better. Oxfords Foucault: A Very Short Introduction or Michel Foucault (Routledge Critical Thinkers) offer a better overview by far. ... Read more

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Michel Foucault and Martin Heidegger are two of the most important intellectual figures of the twentieth century, and yet there are significant, largely unexplored questions about the relationship between their projects. Foucault and Heidegger stages a crucial critical encounter between these two thinkers; in doing so, it clarifies not only the complexities of the Heidegger-Foucault relationship, but also their relevance to questions about truth and nihilism, acquiescence and resistance, and technology and agency that are central to debates in contemporary thought.

These essays examine topics ranging from Heidegger's and Foucault's intellectual forebears to their respective understanding of the Enlightenment, modernity, and technology, to their conceptions of power and the political.

Contributors: Hubert L. Dreyfus, U of California, Berkeley; Stuart Elden, U of Warwick, UK; Béatrice Han, U of Essex, UK; Steven V. Hicks, CUNY; Ladelle McWhorter, U of Richmond; Jana Sawicki, Williams College; Michael Schwartz, Augusta State U; Charles E. Scott, Pennsylvania State U; William V. Spanos, Binghamton U; Leslie Paul Thiele, U of Florida; Rudi Visker, Institute of Philosophy, Belgium; Edith Wyschogrod, Rice U.

Alan Milchman is lecturer in political science and Alan Rosenberg is associate professor of philosophy, both at Queens College, City University of New York. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

An essential survey of the French intellectual tradition
The timely element of Foucault's works is that he was an inheritor of a tradition in French academia that had less to do with Baudrillard and Lyotard than with the underrated likes of Canguilhem, Bachelard, Dumezil,Veyne and Hadot.Fortunately, Professor Davidson has managed to collectinsightful essays on Foucault by his mentors and peers.These essays canbe divided into two sets: historical documents and reflections.Of notewith respect to the former is Georges Canguilhem's report on Foucault'smajor thesis, folie and deraison, which is an historical document thatreflects both the value of Foucault's initial work as well as a succinctand just summary of the work.Canguilhem supplies two additional essaysthat summarize the Foucauldian oeuvre.With respect to the latter, of noteis Derrida's final remarks on the heated exchanges that occured between himand Foucault about a handful of passages about Descartes and madness.

But perhaps the most outstanding pieces in this collection are from PaulVeyne which provide a penetrating insight into Foucault's historiography(Veyne himself is an eminent historian at the College de France) inaddition to a touching memoire that draws the last works of Foucault onethics with a meditation on death.

Other peers who contribute to thiscollection include Deleuze (which can be read as an appendix to his ownpenetrating study of Foucault), Serres, and the great Pierre Hadot (who butHadot could summarize the key points of the latter two volumes of Historyof Sexuality any better?)

Finally, the much heralded but hard to finddebate between Foucault and Noam Chomsky is included here.Many will findit a great disappointment.

Foucault and his interlocutors is an importantsurvey of Foucault's legacy as well as a way into a side of Foucault thatmuch of American appropriation of his work has failed to grasp: theaustere, technical, and historical work that is a continuation of a greatFrench tradition. ... Read more

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In 1784, the German newspaper Berlinische Monatsschrift asked its audience to reply to the question "What is Enlightenment?" Immanuel Kant took the opportunity to investigate the purported truths and assumptions of his age. Two hundred years later, Michel Foucault wrote a response to Kant's initial essay, positioning Kant as the initiator of the discourse and critique of modernity. The Politics of Truth takes this initial encounter between Foucault and Kant, as a framework for its selection of unpublished essays and transcripts of lectures Foucault gave in America and France between 1978 and 1984, the year of his death. Ranging from reflections on the Enlightenment and revolution to a consideration of the Frankfurt School, this collection offers insight into the topics preoccupying Foucault as he worked on what would be his last body of published work, the three-volume History of Sexuality. It also offers what is in a sense the most "American" moment of Foucault's thinking, for it was in America that he realized the necessity of tying his own thought to that of the Frankfurt School. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Power-Truth
An all together excellent collection of essays and interviews by the late Foucault. This gathering of philosophy revolves around Kant's 'What is Enlightenment' essay, (which is included in the book), and provides Foucault's complex and well reasoned response. The Kantian notion of Enlightenment was contingent on a form of political freedom which enabled man to free himself from external authority and think rationally. Foucault traces the historicity of this mode of thought, and ultimately argues that the Enlightenment was a system of connectivity between power relations, and that humans were not truly "mature" intellectually in the Kantian sense.

This volume also has excellent discussions on revolution, the development of critique in philosophical discourse, and Christianity and Confession. An excellent presentation of his thought, and somewhat clearer than his published books. ... Read more

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Product Description
For students of philosophy, this book was first published in France in 1986. It examines Foucault's principal themes - knowledge, power and the nature of subjectivity. Both a critique and an interpretation, it should be of interest to anyone concerned with Foucault and the impact of his ideas. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A fabulous hommage, I am floored.
Being a Foucault fanatic who had never read Deleuze, I bought this merely because I wanted to read more about my favorite author and also because I knew how influential and important Deleuze was, not only for Foucault himself but in the field of continental philosophy in the last century.

The further I read, the more fascinating I found Deleuze's analysis of Foucault's works and methods.Although he places his focus on mainly "The Archaeology of Knowledge" and "Discipline and Punish", he makes constant references to Foucault's otherimportant works.

What stands out as completely unique is the utterly and unsurpassably rigorous way in which Deleuze reads Foucault.Deleuze's prose is decidedly difficult, but if you're a Foucault reader who has had some contact with postmodern theories in the past then you'll at least grasp the meaning of his words.

What's more, Deleuze breaks down Foucault's epistemological and methodological theorizing to their barest, making this an extremely important learning experience for those who wish to understand Foucault in-depth.

This book is essential, but I also recommend you read it once you've become fairly familiar with Foucault... and as I said, I had never read Deleuze but that didn't stop me from finding this book to be absolute food for thought.Granted, it needs to be read MANY times to fully appreciate its potential and maybe integrate Deleuze's reflections into any kind of practical research... because I also found it to be enlightening in that respect.

Had Foucault lived to read this book, I'm sure he would have been humbled to tears.

Magnificent.

An introduction? Perhaps. The essentials? Without a doubt
While it is true that this is not an introduction to the thought of Foucault - Deleuze instead called his book a 'portrait' - on the other hand it is such a masterful grasp of Foucault's philosophy, written in chapters that move progressively from one essential stage of Foucault's thought to another until the bigger picture emerges, that one cannot but wonder whether one has really read Foucault until one encounter's Deleuze's portrait of him. So in that sense, if one means that an introductory book should truly explain the material, then this is without doubt an introduction to the thought of Foucault, and one not likely to be surpassed. This is a short book, around 130 pages. Given the Parisian milieu in which Foucault worked, and for a time was very good friends with Deleuze (Deleuze refers in this book to manuscripts that Foucault never published), this book offers us a highly developed look from the left bank onto the problems that Foucault found himself working through, and it articulates them chapter by chapter: each chapter is devoted to one philosophical problem, and then moves to the next level and onto a different problem in the following chapter, thereby allowing Deleuze to unfold the problems (there are three, under the rubric of Topology) and explicate their relation to Foucault's thought as a whole. It is in this sense that Deleuze's book is a philosophical portrait: he has captured the essentials of the philosophical thought that underlies Foucault's work. The style of the book is predicated on repetition, or seriality, which may madden some; but so long as one understands the book as a progression or unfolding the reader should be able to adjust his or her reading habits accordingly. A word of caution is however necessary: this translation is a very sloppy job, and the buyer should be aware of that. I have not taken off any stars for Sean Hand's failure here, as I am assuming that the reader only has access to the book in its English version. But it is not going too far to note in a review that this is the worst translation into English of any of Deleuze's books (which normally receive meticulous care), which is all the more unfortunate, because it is so very insightful.

Good Book
I am not sure where some of this hostility comes from but in my opinion this was a very interesting work regarding one of the pioneers of poststructuralist philosophy. The knowledge of Deleuze is in my opinion unparalleled. This is a very good book and as Nathan said above you do need to be well read in both philosophers. This would be especially helpful just to understand the writing style of deleuze. He is quite difficult. Regardless, I found this to be a great introductory text to one of the greatest philosophers of the modern era.

A pointless book-the blind by the blind
First off, I must state that I do typically enjoy philosophy.However, this book made me question myself.

I have read a fair amount of Foucault, and consider myself to have a strong grasp of his ideas.I stubbornly kept on through the dense and boring texts, until I finally understood it.I had heard some people talking about Deleuze with awe in their voices, as if he was some kind of god, so I figured he was an intersting/important philosopher.I picked up this book, and boy was I disappointed.

First of all, Deleuze seems incapable of writing a coherent sentence.The grammar and spelling in this text were atrocious.This may be a function of the translation, but somehow I doubt it.Secondly, Deleuze never really SAYS anything.It is all masturbatory talk.Now that I consider it, so is Foucault.So perhaps my title should instead be "the masturbatory by the masturbatory".

And as for the comments below me, by Nathan, you are far too kind to the book."[I]t is nonetheless brilliant and intellectually rigorous".Excuse me?This was perhaps the least interesting or stimulating book I have read in the last 5 years!And for you to say that this book is a philosophical masterpiece is simply ridiculous.Philosophical Grammer is a philosophical masterpiece.Being and Time is a philosophical masterpiece.Beyond Good and Evil is a philosophical masterpiece.This is not.In conclusion, this is most certainly NOT a treat.

DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!

The Rhizomatic Foucault...
Is there an event in philosophy called Deleuze-Foucault?In 'Theatrum Philosophicum' Foucault uncovers Deleuze's philosophy as well as elucidates his own agenda.In 'Foucault' Deleuze teaches us how Foucaultworks--perhaps they shared this event in philosophy?There is perhaps noone better to learn philosophy from than Deleuze... Perhaps one day theworld will become Deleuzian after all. ... Read more

Product Description
In this clear, straightforward introduction to Foucault's thought, Prado focuses on Discipline and Punish and the first volume of The History of Sexuality, in which Foucault most clearly comes to grips with thehistoricization of truth and knowledge and the formation of subjectivity. This sympathetic but critical introduction is especially suited for readers with a background in Anglo-American or "analytic" philosophy.

Michel Foucault had a great influence upon a wide range of disciplines, and his work has been widely interpreted and is frequently referred to, but it is often difficult for beginners to find their way intothe complexities of his thought. This is especially true for readers whose background is Anglo-American or "analytic" philosophy. C. G. Prado argues in this updated introduction that the time is overdue for Anglo-American philosophers to avail themselves of what Foucault offers. In this clear and greatly revised second-edition introduction to Foucault's thought, Prado focuses on Foucault's "middle" or genealogical work, particularly Discipline and Punish and Volume One of The History of Sexuality in whichFoucault most clearly comes to grips with the historicization of truth and knowledge and the formation of subjectivity. Understanding Foucault's thought on these difficult subjects requires working through muchcomplexity and ambiguity, and Prado's direct and accessible introduction is the ideal place to start.

Praise for the first edition:

"Prado has embraced a formidable mission-a specific introduction to Michel Foucault for analytic philosophers.... His consideration of Foucault's five forms of truth is particularly masterful and his preference for the genealogical studies rather than the archaeological books is inspired. Prado appreciates that 'what Foucault has to say still needs saying,' and makes it possible for other philosophers to hear it accurately." -James Bernauer, Boston College

"Prado's introduction to Michel Foucault has two distinct advantages over other introductions. First, it is centered on his most important concept: power/knowledge. In addition, it is addressed to both Anglo-American and Continental readers. The time has come for Foucault to be introduced into contemporary Anglo-American discussion-Prado's book is an important step in this direction." -Todd May, Clemson University; Author of Between Genealogy and Epistemology: Psychology, Politics, and Knowledge in the Thought of Michel Foucault

"Prado's book is still the clearest and most analytical introduction to Foucault's work that I know. ... Starting with Foucault is...unparalleled." -Rex Welshon, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

"This is a remarkable book in its scope and its depth. ...The scholarship in this book is impressive and far reaching. ...It is a tempting tendency in Foucault scholarship to stay within the vocabulary of the institutional and academic discourse. Prado's book would make a strong contribution to steering away from it as it deals with an exposition to the real and current issues." -Shekhar Deshpande

"Prado is very clear and accurate." -Alan Nasser ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Foucault for analytic philosophers
Ever try to stick a square peg in a round hole? Well Prado pulls it off marvelously in this excellent book on Foucault's genealogy.With a constant eye on the mind-set and objections of analytic philosophers Pradoslowly and very convincingly details Foucault's problematic (principally inDiscipline and Punish and the History of Sexuality).He ends the book witha long discussion of the various senses of truth in Foucault's work, andthoughtfully treats the problem of Foucault's relativism.Even if you're aFoucault enthusiast who's read a stack of other commentaries, Prado's styleis so clear, direct, and accomodating that you're sure to walk away with abetter take on Foucault's thought as a whole.Buy it.

A fine contribution to the secondary litterature on Foucault
I agree with the above reviewer from Ontario.De Prado has did it well,and formulated an understanding of Foucault which enhanced my own.

An excellent introduction to Foucault's philosophy
Foucault is not an easy philosopher to grasp, especially out of context.Prado does an excellent job placing Foucault's middle (or genealogical) works in the context of Foucault's other writings, as well as in the context of modern philosophy.For readers new to Foucault, Prado's book is an enviable introduction.For those already familiar with the philosopher, Prado's own take on Foucault is both insightful and thought-provoking.I highly recommend the book. ... Read more

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Michel Foucault was the first to embed the roots of human sexuality in discipline and biopolitics, therefore revolutionizing our conception of sex and its relationship to society, economics, and culture. Yet over the past two decades, scholars have limited themselves to the study of Foucault'sHistory of Sexuality, volume 1 paying lesser attention to his equally explosiveHistory of Madness. In this earlier volume, Foucault recasts Western rationalism as a project that both produces and represses sexual deviants, calling out the complicity of modern science and the exclusionary nature of family morality. By reclaiming these deft moves, Lynne Huffer teases out exciting new strands of Foucauldian thought. She then revisits the theorist's ethical work in light of these discoveries, divining an ethics of eros that sees sexuality as a lived experience we are repeatedly called on to remember. Throughout her study, Huffer weaves her own experiences together with Foucault's, sampling from unpublished interviews and other archived materials in order to intimately rework the problem of sexuality as a product of reason.

Customer Reviews (1)

A New Foucault
Huffer, Lynne. "Mad for Foucault: Rethinking the Foundations of Queer Theory", Columbia University Press, 2009.

A New Foucault

Amos Lassen

I must admit it--I am mad for Foucault. He has been my hero for as long as I can remember and I have devoured everything he wrote and everything written about him. Lynne Huffer gives us a new Foucault, one that is barely recognizable. I have always regarded Foucault as a champion and pioneer of queer theory and Huffer shows how he came to this early in his career. Huffer arrives at this conclusion only after having researched carefully and she gives us a great deal of passion in presenting this.
Personally, I found the book totally fascinating. Having read Foucault's "History of Sexuality" and remembering how well his argument is rooted in impolitic and discipline, it is fairly easy to understand his concept of sex as it relates to our world economically, culturally and socially.Foucault, according to Huffer, first began to formulate his theory with "History of Madness" in which he shows that Western nationalism is responsible for the production and reduction of sexual deviancy and this is based upon the principle of exclusion by the family and complicity of modern science. This idea leads Huffer to show some new thoughts from Foucault and shows us a system of Eros that gives us sexuality as an experience that is remembered. Is this so new and different? Really it isn't but at the time that Foucault came to this conclusion, it was startling. Granted Foucault is sometimes difficult to read but doing so brings us to a new level of queer consciousness and Lynne Huffer helps us along this journey.

... Read more

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In 1976, Jean Baudrillard sent this essay to the French magazine Critique, where Michel Foucault was an editor. Foucault was asked to reply, but remained silent. Forget Foucault (1977) made Baudrillard instantly infamous in France. It was a devastating revisitation of Foucault's recent History of Sexuality—and of his entire oeuvre—and also an attack on those philosophers, like Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, who believed that desire could be revolutionary. In Baudrillard's eyes, desire and power were interchangeable, so desire had no place in Foucault's work. There is no better introduction to Baudrillard's polemical approach to culture than these pages, in which Baudrillard dares Foucault to meet the challenge of his own thought. This Semiotext(e) edition of Forget Foucault is accompanied by a dialogue with Sylvère Lotringer, "Forget Baudrillard," a reevaluation by Baudrillard of his lesser-known early works as a post-Marxian thinker. Lotringer presses Baudrillard to explain how he arrived at his infamous extrapolationist theories from his roots in the nineteenth and early twentieth century social and anthropological works of Karl Marx, Marcel Mauss, and Emil Durkheim. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Elegant and Troubling
What's Baudrillard's beef with Foucault? In a sense, Baudrillard's reading of Foucault is analogous to Derrida's in 'Writing and Difference'- Foucault is attempting to have his cake and eat it too, hypothesizing about the other side of reason while remaining behind its frontiers. Simply put, Baudrillard's problem with Foucault is that he makes too much sense in a world that is properly senseless. Just as Nietzsche and Heidegger probed the fractures of discursive speech, denouncing systematic philosophy's (metaphysics) complicity with scientific manipulation and technological domination, Baudrillard sees himself as the harbinger of another annunciation. Friends and countrymen, truth is dead, we have killed it and yet we refuse to bear witness to its passing! If 'Forget Foucault' accomplishes anything, it warns us against the dangers of NOSTALGIA.

As such, Sylvere Lotringer is absolutely correct when he underlines the NECESSITY of this maneuver for Baudrillard himself- this is Baudrillard's farewell note to classical social theory, which has always entertained a 'vampiric' relationship with that which it comments upon. All theory is premised upon the seemingly irrefutable postulate that social reality exists, that theory supplies an arsenal of analytic optics by which we can evaluate this reality. In this way, we can say that theory subsists upon its host, upon the multifarious 'antagonisms' and 'contradictions' that constitute it. We need not mention that this parasitism directly corresponds to capitalism's extraction of value- Deleuze & Guattari have already reminded us that psychoanalysis thrives on the surplus value of obsession and hysteria. Baudrillard's controversial hypothesis, perhaps the most divisive and polarizing one of the 20th century, is that EVERY canonized philosophical postulate must be made to account for itself, that absolutely nothing should be spared nor conserved. What if, he asks, the atomic presuppositions that compose every theoretical substratum, from repression and the unconscious to class struggle, are ultimately tautological, self-legitimating signs that refer to nothing but themselves? This was the trajectory that Baudrillard had embarked upon in his time with Utopie, the radical architecture group centered around Herbert Tonka.

Taking this logic one step further, Baudrillard asks a rather jarring question. What if Deleuze's 'anti-psychoanalysis', far from abolishing the foundational premises of psychoanalysis, elevates desire to the level of an unassailable invariant of psychic life? Is Foucault's 'molecularization' of power, his revocation of every transcendence, not another chapter in the lineage of 'political philosophy'? In effect, 'Forget Foucault' is a sobering rejoinder to every hagiographic valorization of Foucault's 'revolutionary break'- Foucault may have alerted us to the micrological immanence of 'biopolitical' power, but all this comes down to is a sophisticated re-evaluation of a classical problematic. Note that Baudrillard does not dismiss Foucault for all that- Baudrillard's work up to and including Symbolic Exchange and Death is heavily reliant on Foucauldian schemas. So what changed? For whatever reason, Baudrillard came to feel the inexorable/insupportable weight of a historical exigency, one that led him to question the efficacy and validity of Foucauldian genealogy.

While Baudrillard's critique stands and falls upon your acceptance of his position vis-a-vis reality, it is clear to see that Baudrillard can no longer treat Foucault as a fellow wayfarer- he must leave Foucault behind, as a 'moment' in his intellectual development. His imploration to 'forget Foucault' is not really as radical as one might think- for all of Baudrillard's clownish posturing, he is really reiterating the first rule of dialectical/historical materialism. For Baudrillard, the criterion of a theory's currency is contingent upon its suitability for the time in which it is situated. This makes perfect sense when we frame it in the terms of Baudrillard's Bataillean economy of seduction and challenge. Capitalism issues a challenge to theory, and theory's response must be even more excessive, protean and hyperbolic than its adversary. By failing to do so, theory is locked in the disequilibrium that power enforces upon it- it will forever remain in a position of abjection and subservience, a mere accountant of capitalism's ills that is incapable of becoming its equal. Theory must rise to the occasion and assert itself as an INTERLOCUTOR, advancing a question that capitalism cannot resolve on its own terms. Just as capital, in its mad pursuit of surplus value, is prepared to stake itself on the roll of the dice, theory must be prepared to sacrifice and wager itself when the conditions demand it. Whatever one may think about Baudrillard's contentions, I think that his prodigious, prolific work following Forget Foucault constitutes a protracted combat with intellectual inertia.

For all of its coy feints and metaphorical contortions, the argument in 'Forget Foucault' is embarassingly simple. In effect, Baudrillard poses Bataillean non-knowledge against the Children of May, whom he feels continue to bear the stigma of Cartesian positivism. He wants to out-Nietzsche an entire generation, to interrogate every assumption that history has super-imposed upon the human form. Baudrillard's text hinges upon the central axis of 'reversibility'- theory has heretofore described the 'positive' side of reality (note that Baudrillard's use of the 'symbolic' and the 'real' are directly opposite to that of Lacan; in fact, one might say that we can substitute the one for the other in Baudrillard's work), while ignoring the fact that Man has a profoundly negative dimension, characterised by death, waste and excessive expenditure. For all of their radicalism, the Children of May simply aren't radical ENOUGH- while acknowledging their debts to Nietzsche and Bataille, two thinkers who carved out a space in which philosophy could take leave of itself, post-'68 philosophy merely rehearses the same old gestures of the Enlightenment, recycling anthropological presumptions that, for Baudrillard, amount to an inexcusable CENSORSHIP and MORALIZATION of man. While placing every margin, frontier and limit in question, Foucault and Derrida remain entrenched within the quandary of humanism, espousing a conception of Man as a reasonable, meaningful, PRODUCTIVE creature. Every affirmation of productive difference, liberatory desire and autarkic 'self-authorship' is ensnared within this vicious circularity, orbiting around the identity of the concept- at base they all describes Man's reconciliation with himself through joyous acts of creation.

In reading this text, we should recover its effaced SUBtext: Forget Foucault, Remember Bataille. Remember that which escapes all recuperation by the dialectic, which eludes all representation and shatters every frame of reference. The truly troubling thing about Baudrillard's text is his tacit assertion that Capitalism ALREADY KNOWS THIS, that the operations of capitalism enact, in a way that theory is thoroughly incapable of grasping, Bataille's exaltation of meaninglessness, the splitting of the pure signifier from any corresponding referent.

This is why Baudrillard's retrieval of Bataille is so unabashedly 'naive' in comparison to the borrowings of Deleuze (who castigated Bataille for being 'too French'), Foucault and Derrida (who appropriated the form and movement of Bataille's critical method while eschewing its ethnological 'content'). By contrast to this, Baudrillard's corpus strikes us as a tremendous atavism- his 'theoretical' production from this point onward probes the subcutaneous, abyssal depths beneath the Enlightenment project, excavating all that is irrational, asocial, ahistorical and atemporal about human experience. The post-structuralist objection to Bataille's metaphysics, its hankering for some originary, 'lost' Real that escapes all socio-historical mediation, is thus misplaced-deconstruction, in its insistence on the irreducibly material 'traces' that are effaced and repressed by every 'metaphysics of presence', fails to see that materiality itself has evaporated in the fiery crucible of capital. This is why every insistence upon the primacy of matter, on the classical schemas of Marxist analysis, fails to grasp the disappearance of matter, time and meaning in our spectacularly ephemeral world of speculative finance and virtual reality. More troubling than this is the suggestion that meaninglessness is our DEEPEST DESIRE, that the supposed 'vacuity' of commodity fetish, far from inhibiting us from returning to the fullness of our true destination, is the inalienable destiny of mankind, its consummate expression.

This is why Baudrillard and post-structuralism are intrinsically inimical to one another- Baudrillard's work is impossible without the 'metaphysical' claim that an ineffable negativity persists beneath being, a bottomless chasm that collapses every truth claim that suspends itself above it. In short, every theoretical edifice is PRECARIOUS, and this is directly correlative to the utter precariousness of capital itself. Much like Zizek, Baudrillard indexes the success of capitalism to its unconscious understanding of this invariable dimension of human subjectivity, its calculated manipulation of desire and drive. Baudrillard's claim can be stated thus: the Enlightenment is dead, and capitalism has given up the ghost a long time ago. Are we capable of doing the same? This is his first attempt to supply an answer, and whether one agrees with him or not- I read Baudrillard with a mixture of ambivalence and horror- his conclusions are both chilling and unsettling.

Thin critique
Jean Baudrillard's slim and largely unintelligible critical exegesis of Michel Foucault is a largely superficial and smug critique of the late thinker's work on the history of sexuality. Baudrillard begins his essay with a complement:

"Foucault's writing is perfect in that the very movement of the text gives an admirable account of what it proposes: on one hand, a powerful generating spiral that is no longer despotic architecture but a filiation en abyme, coil and strophe without origin (without catastrophe, either), unfolding ever more widely and rigorously" (29)

and so on and so forth. The basic thesis of Baudrillard's critique is that Foucault's "discourse is a mirror of the powers it describes." (30) He believes that Foucault's analysis is "no truer than any other," and that its appeal lies in its ability to seduce. He insists that Foucault's work is "too beautiful to be true" and that there is no essential difference between repression and the power dynamics which compel society to confess its sexual history. He maintains that Foucault's thesis is false because its link to Marxist theories of capital and reproduction are erroneous in that it was always the bourgeoisie that struggled with repression, not the proletariat. However, Baudrillard neglects to include any historical analysis, whereas Foucault's work is filled to the brim with it. You can judge which thinker is more responsible and serious for yourself.

Forget Baudrillard!
In this book, Baudrillard considers Foucaultfs discourse as ga mirror of the power it describesh and deconstructs it (as shown in the title). According to him, sex disappears as a referent in the hyperreality ofliberated sexuality. It is interesting for me that he quotes Barthesfcomment on Japan: gThere, sexuality is in sex and nowhere else. In theUnited States, sexuality is everywhere except in sex.h Baudrillardconsiders Japanese sexuality as to be different from American or Westernone as Barthes did. His insistence is interesting because his analysis onJapanese sexuality is very different from ours. It is more interesting toread Japanese sexuality in his gSeductionh in which he mentions toJapanese striptease.

Moreover, Baudrillard develops his theory inthe discussions on power, Marxism, and psychoanalysis. Particularly, it isvery exciting to read his comments on Deleuze and Lyotard. He points outthe coincidence gbetween new version of power proposed by Foucault and thenew version of desire proposed by Deleuze and Lyotard.h Probably, toconnect easily the two different notions in this way is the cause to bemistaken that Baudrillard did not understand Foucault, Deleuze, andLyotard. But what he wants is not content but dynamism of thought andacceleration of rhetoric. This results in his work to destroy his owndiscourse, which accelerate simulation he describes. The latter half ofthis book consists of Baudrillardfs interviews, titled gForgetBaudrillardh. Here, he succeeds in producing a polyphonic text by talkingabout his own discourse and strategies. Foucaultfs discourse should beforgotten and also should be Baudrillardfs. Their discourses never producemeanings unless they are forgotten.

This bookfs constitution isvery exciting and fascinating. You will get something more than the sizeand volume, even if they are small. ... Read more

Product Description
Death and the Labyrinth is unique, being Foucault's only work on literature. For Foucault this was "by far the book I wrote most easily and with the greatest pleasure". Here, Foucault explores theory, criticism and psychology through the texts of Raymond Roussel, one of the fathers of experimental writing, whose work has been celebrated by the likes of Cocteau, Duchamp, Breton, Robbe Grillet, Gide and Giacometti. This revised edition includes an introduction, chronology and bibliography to Foucault's work by James Faubion, an interview with Foucault, conducted only nine months before his death, and concludes with an essay on Roussel by the poet John Ashbery. ... Read more

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Arguing that a Foucauldian feminism is possible, Sawicki rejects the view that the power of the phallocentric is total. Instead, like Foucault, she sees discouse as ambiguous and a source of conflict. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

an excellent appropriation of Foucault to feminism
Jana Sawicki identifies the issues that have been most contentious in feminist efforts to appropriate Foucault's concepts on subjectivities, powers, and the social constructions of Western bodies to an activist form of feminism and feminist research.She is able to reconcile many issues, such as those some feminists have had with Foucault's conceptions of power and subjectivity, and Foucault's clear androcentrism into a feminist theory that moves beyond these arguments and appropriates what is beneficial in Foucault to a feminism I find rewarding. ... Read more

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"Admirable...yields a vivid picture of Foucault."

-- New Republic

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.

"David Macey's The Lives of Michel Foucault is the third, and probably the last, Foucault biography to appear in English.... It is also the best: fuller in its source and freer in their use...preferable, in terms of moral intelligence, maturity and poise." -- The Times Literary Supplement ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

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.

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 ... Read more

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Combining the most powerful elements of Foucault's theories, Clifford produces a methodology for cultural and political critique called "political genealogy" to explore the genesis of modern political identity.At the core of American identity, Clifford argues, is the ideal of the "Savage Noble," a hybrid that married the Native American "savage" with the "civilized" European male.This complex icon animates modern politics, and has shaped our understandings of rights, freedom, and power. ... Read more