Michel Foucault's postmodernism philosophy claims that
society, and all social interactions, are maintained through relations of power.
He is best known for his works Madness and Civilization, Discipline
and Punish: the birth of the prison, and The History of Sexuality.
Foucault uses the advent of 'the linguistic turn' as a
historical retrospective or 'archaeology' in order to stress the meanings of
concepts rather than the impact that these concepts make upon the world.
Michel Foucault (October 15, 1926 - October 7, 1796)
was born in Poitiers, France. He studied under Althusser at the Ecole Normale
Superieure and then taught at Clermont-Ferrand and Paris. In his 40s, he was
appointed chairperson in the 'history of systems of thought' at the College de
France.
The theme in Foucault's work is the relationship
between power and knowledge, and how power is used to control and define
knowledge. What authorities claim as 'scientific knowledge' are really just
means of social control. He reasons how during the 18th century for example,
'madness' was used to categorize not just the mentally ill but the poor, the
sick and for this matter, anyone whose expressions of individuality were not
welcome. In this respect, 'madness' becomes an antithesis of 'reason,' in a
way, a means of control.
The philosophy of Foucault upholds that - what we take
to be knowledge and the concepts through which we understand ourselves - are
contingent, mutable and not historical ('ahistorical'). In other words, they do
not evolve along some 'path of progress' but rather change in response to the
needs of authority to control the individual's behaviour.
Foucault discusses his theme in his writings, for
instance, the knowledge usurped in the service of authority in Discipline
and Punish, the birth of the prison. In his History of Sexuality,
he argues that this new emphasis in controlling the mind is continued in Sigmund Freud's psycho-analytic method, in which Freud, for instance, redefines sex as
a psychological feature of the mind unlike the Middle Ages, in which sex was a
bodily concern.
·
Madness and Civilization, 1961
·
Birth of the clinic, 1963
·
The Order of Things, 1966
·
The Archaeology of Knowledge, 1969
·
Discipline and Punish, 1975
·
The History of Sexuality, 3
volumes: 1976, 1984, 1984
Biographical Dictionary,
edited by Una Mcgovern, Chambers (2002)
Dictionary of Modern Thinkers, edited by Alan Bullock and R.B. Woodings, London: Fontana, 1983
Philosophy, the Great Thinkers, by Philip Stokes, Capella (2007)