Ethics: Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, Volume 1

by Michel Foucault, Paul Rabinow, Robert Hurley

Overview

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.

Ethics (edited by Paul Rabinow) contains the summaries of Foucault's renowned courses at the Collège de France, paired with key writings and interviews on friendship, sexuality, and the care of the self and others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781565844346
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	04/28/2006
Series:	New Press Essential Series
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michel Foucault (1926–1984) was one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. He held a chair in the history of systems of thought at the Collège de France and lectured at universities throughout the world. The New Press has published his books Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology; Ethics; Power; The Essential Foucault; and The Chomsky-Foucault Debate (with Noam Chomsky). Foucault’s other books include Madness and Civilization, Discipline and Punish, The Order of Things, and The History of Sexuality.

Paul Rabinow is a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. His previous books include Anthropos Today, French DNA and French Modern.

Editorial Reviews

Foucault’s work . . . leaves no reader untouched or unchanged.” —Edward Said

“What shines through in these pieces . . . is [Foucault’s] remarkable liveliness of response, the extravagance of his curiosity, the originality and assurance of his formulations. . . To read this book is to remember—as with the Kennedy assassination or the Challenger explosion—where you were when you heard it for the first time.” —Boston Book Review

From the Publisher

These essays-the first of three volumes of Foucault's short works, interviews, and fragments-open with 11 previously unpublished outlines for lectures at the College de France from 1970 until near Foucault's death. They begin with the distinction Foucault made between the "will to knowledge" (a passion for authoritative organization) and the "will to truth" (a concern for the integrity of subjective expression). The outlines often probe subjectivity, but Foucault's thought becomes increasingly moral and political, focusing on technology and the social order. Though not his major writings, these works may be "essential" because they express the kernel of his thought. They suffer from problems of vocabulary-"knowing" and "willing" have uncertain meanings in the original French and in the English translations-and his arguments do not get much formal analysis. Even so, he writes entertainingly and makes us think. For any sizable library.-Leslie Armour, Univ. of Ottawa

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