Foucault refused to biographies, one side arguing for the continued development of his personality and the other the fact that his works and gave a public existence. He used to say:
"Do not ask me who I am
and do not ask me to remain the same"
Paul-Michel Foucault was born in 1926 in Poitiers, France. His father, Paul Foucault, was an eminent surgeon and hoped his son would follow in his footsteps. Foucault removed 'Paul' from his name for reasons not entirely clear. His early education was a mixture of success and mediocrity until he attended the Jesuit College Saint Stanislaus, where he was an outstanding student.
During this period, Poitiers was part of Vichy France and later to be occupied by Germany. After the war, Foucault gained entry to the prestigious Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, the main entrance to an academic career in France.
L'École Normale Supérieure
Foucault's personal life at L'Ecole Normale Superieure was difficult-he suffered from acute depression, and even tried suicide. He was taken to a psychiatrist. Perhaps this comes later fascination with psychology. So, in addition to his degree in philosophy, also earned one in psychology, recently created in France. There he became involved in the clinical arm of the discipline known thinkers such as Ludwig Binswanger.
Like many normaliens, Foucault was a member of the French Communist Party from 1950 to 1953. His mentor Louis Althusser induced him to join the party. He left due to concerns about what happened in the Soviet Union under Stalin. Unlike most party members, Foucault never actively participated in his cell.
Like many normaliens, Foucault was a member of the French Communist Party from 1950 to 1953. His mentor Louis Althusser induced him to join the party. He left due to concerns about what happened in the Soviet Union under Stalin. Unlike most party members, Foucault never actively participated in his cell.
Its beginnings
Foucault spent his Agrégation in 1950. After a short lecture at the Ecole Normale, accepted a position at the Univesidad of Lille, where he taught psychology from 1953 to 1954. In 1954 he published his first book, Maladie mentale et personnalité, work later disavow. Foucault
quickly realized that teaching was not for him and went into exile in France for a while. In 1954 served as a cultural delegate of France at the University of Uppsala, Sweden (a position arranged by Georges Dumézil, who became a friend and mentor). In 1958 Foucault left Uppsala and briefly held positions at Warsaw and the University of Hamburg.
Foucault returned to France in 1960 to complete his PhD and assume a position in philosophy at the University of Clermont-Ferrand. There he met Daniel Defert with whom he formed a non-monogamous couples for the rest of his life. In 1961 he obtained his doctorate thesis by two (as is customary in France). His thesis 'main' was entitled Folie et Deraison: Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique and 'high' was the translation and commentary of Anthropology from a pragmatic point of view of Kant. Folie et Deraison was very well received. In 1963 he published Naissance of Clinique, Raymond Roussel and re-released his book of 1954 (now re-titled Maladie mentale et psychologie) which also would deny it later. When Defert was sent to Tunisia for his military service, Eddy landed a job at the University of Tunis in 1965. In 1966 he published Les Mots et les choses, which was quite popular despite its difficulty and size. This book marked the highest interest in structuralism and Foucault was quickly grouped with scholars such as Jacques Lacan, Claude Lévi-Strauss and Roland Barthes to form the new wave of thinkers to unseat the existentialists Jean-Paul Sartre.
was still in Tunisia, where riots broke out in May French, and a local revolt had much impact upon him. In the autumn of 1968 he returned to France and published L'archéologie du savoir-in response to his critics in 1969.
quickly realized that teaching was not for him and went into exile in France for a while. In 1954 served as a cultural delegate of France at the University of Uppsala, Sweden (a position arranged by Georges Dumézil, who became a friend and mentor). In 1958 Foucault left Uppsala and briefly held positions at Warsaw and the University of Hamburg.
Foucault returned to France in 1960 to complete his PhD and assume a position in philosophy at the University of Clermont-Ferrand. There he met Daniel Defert with whom he formed a non-monogamous couples for the rest of his life. In 1961 he obtained his doctorate thesis by two (as is customary in France). His thesis 'main' was entitled Folie et Deraison: Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique and 'high' was the translation and commentary of Anthropology from a pragmatic point of view of Kant. Folie et Deraison was very well received. In 1963 he published Naissance of Clinique, Raymond Roussel and re-released his book of 1954 (now re-titled Maladie mentale et psychologie) which also would deny it later. When Defert was sent to Tunisia for his military service, Eddy landed a job at the University of Tunis in 1965. In 1966 he published Les Mots et les choses, which was quite popular despite its difficulty and size. This book marked the highest interest in structuralism and Foucault was quickly grouped with scholars such as Jacques Lacan, Claude Lévi-Strauss and Roland Barthes to form the new wave of thinkers to unseat the existentialists Jean-Paul Sartre.
was still in Tunisia, where riots broke out in May French, and a local revolt had much impact upon him. In the autumn of 1968 he returned to France and published L'archéologie du savoir-in response to his critics in 1969.
Post-1968: Foucault the activist
After the events of the French May, the government of this country created a new experimental university at Vincennes. Foucault became the first head of its philosophy department in December of that year, and recruited mostly young leftist academics. The radical of one of them (Judith Miller), prompted the French Ministry withdrew the accreditation of the department. At the time Foucault was known to join students in colleges and footage in its confrontations with the police.
Foucault's stay in Vincennes was brief, since in 1970 he was elected to the most prestigious academic group in France, the Collège de France, to the chair history of systems of thought. It further involved in politics, especially in the wake of his partner, Defert, had joined the group Proletarienne ultra-Maoist Gauche, with which Foucault had a subsequent distant relationship. Foucault helped found the Prison Information Group (Groupe d'Information sur les Prisons-GIP) to help the prisoners to make public their claims. Politicization is manifest in their work with Surveiller et Punish (Discipline and Punish), which tells the micro-power structures formed in industrialized societies since the eighteenth century, especially in prisons and schools.
Main article: The law of modesty
Michel Foucault has also some participation in political life. In 1977, when a committee of the French Parliament was discussing a reform of the French Penal Code, he signed a petition with Jacques Derrida and Louis Althusser, among others, requesting the annulment of some articles of the law to decriminalize all consensual relationships between adults and children under fifteen years (the age of consent in France). He believed that the penal system replaced the punishment of criminal acts by creating the figure of a dangerous individual to society (regardless of the true crime), and predicted that would hazard a society in which sexuality danger would be kind of wandering, a "ghost." He stressed that it would be possible through the establishment of a "new medical power, interested in obtaining the benefits from treatment of these" dangerous individuals. "
His last years
late seventies for political activism in France declined, and most of the Maoists fell in disappointment. Many of them had a breakthrough in their ideological positions, and became the 'new philosophers', who often citing Foucault as their main influence. Status that caused mixed feelings in Foucault. At this time Foucault began his monumental work on the history of sexuality that never end. His first volume, The History of Sexuality, was published in 1976, and has much in common with Discipline and Punish. The second volume, and the third, did not appear until eight years later, and surprised his readers by relatively traditional style, his subject of study (classical Greek and Latin texts) and their approach, particularly the concentration of Foucault in subject, a concept that previously had tended to denigrate. Foucault died in Paris due to illness related to AIDS [1984].
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