
Michel Foucault
Biography
Paul-Michel Foucault (15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationships between power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of social control through societal institutions. Though often cited as a structuralist and postmodernist, Foucault rejected these labels. His thought has influenced academics, especially those working in communication studies, anthropology, psychology, sociology, criminology, cultural studies, literary theory, feminism, Marxism and critical theory. Born in Poitiers, France, into an upper-middle-class family, Foucault was educated at the Lycée Henri-IV, at the École Normale Supérieure, where he developed an interest in philosophy and came under the influence of his tutors Jean Hyppolite and Louis Althusser, and at the University of Paris (Sorbonne), where he earned degrees in philosophy and psychology. After several years as a cultural diplomat abroad, he returned to France and published his first major book, The History of Madness (1961). After obtaining work between 1960 and 1966 at the University of Clermont-Ferrand, he produced The Birth of the Clinic (1963) and The Order of Things (1966), publications that displayed his increasing involvement with structuralism, from which he later distanced himself. These first three histories exemplified a historiographical technique Foucault was developing called "archaeology". From 1966 to 1968, Foucault lectured at the University of Tunis before returning to France, where he became head of the philosophy department at the new experimental university of Paris VIII. Foucault subsequently published The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969). In 1970, Foucault was admitted to the Collège de France, a membership he retained until his death. He also became active in several left-wing groups involved in campaigns against racism and human rights abuses and for penal reform. Foucault later published Discipline and Punish (1975) and The History of Sexuality (1976), in which he developed archaeological and genealogical methods that emphasized the role that power plays in society. Foucault died in Paris from complications of HIV/AIDS; he became the first public figure in France to die from complications of the disease. His partner Daniel Defert founded the AIDES charity in his memory. Paul-Michel Foucault was born on 15 October 1926 in the city of Poitiers, west-central France, as the second of three children in a prosperous, socially conservative, upper-middle-class family. Family tradition prescribed naming him after his father, Paul Foucault (1893–1959), but his mother insisted on the addition of Michel; referred to as Paul at school, he expressed a preference for "Michel" throughout his life. ... Source: Article "Michel Foucault" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Filmografi
Foucault Against Himself2014 · Himself (archive footage)
Vincennes, l'université perdue2016 · Self (archive footage)
Philosophie et vérité1965 · Himself
Michel Foucault par lui-même2003 · Self (voice) (archive footage)
Michel Foucault: Beyond Good and Evil1993 · Self (Archive)
Hervé Guibert, la mort propagande2021 · Self (archive footage)
The Angst and the Bliss2022 · (voice)
The Chomsky - Foucault Debate: On Human Nature1971 · Himself
Philosophie et psychologie1965 · Lui-même
Bachelard parmi nous ou l'héritage invisible1972 · Lui-même
Michel Foucault: Knowledge and Power at SOAS and beyond2024 · Himself
Noam Chomsky
Camille Paglia
André Glucksmann
Maurice Clavel
Hélène Cixous
Jacques Lacan
René Allio