Michel Foucault: Key Concepts

Key Concepts

by Dianna Taylor (Editor)

Michel Foucault was one of the twentieth century's most influential and provocative thinkers. His work on freedom, subjectivity, and power is now central to thinking across an extraordinarily wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, history, education, psychology, politics, anthropology, sociology, and criminology. Michel Foucault: Key Concepts explores Foucault's central ideas, such as disciplinary power, biopower, bodies, spirituality, and practices of the self. Each essay focuses on a specific concept, analyzing its meaning and uses across Foucault's work, highlighting its connection to other concepts, and emphasizing its potential applications. Together, the chapters provide the main co-ordinates to map Foucault's work. But more than a guide to the work, Michel Foucault: Key Concepts introduces readers to Foucault's thinking, equipping them with a set of tools that can facilitate and enhance further study.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Academic

276 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2010

Reviews

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Valuable introductory anthology to key concepts of Foucault, namely his views on power, freedom and subjectivity. I found the chapters on practices of subjectivity of special interest. Interesting also the differences in weights attached to certain interpretations, including more overtly leftist ones and some not so.

[Shoon Teoh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is divided into three sections: Power, Freedom and Subjectivity. Generally accessible but also somewhat lacking in giving critical context such as how Foucault's research methodology genealogy developed or some of Foucault's other terminologies such as Epistemes or governmentality (well it does, but says only that it is an extension of Disciplinary power). The book is a collection of essays by different writers and there is some major overlap between chapters on topics (parrhesia is covered in depth in two chapters in two different sections).

Read the first section on Power but skip the rest.

[James M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good set of essays explaining some of the essential pillars of the thought of Foucault. Generally well written and able to be grasped by those without extensive backgrounds in philosophy

[Elliott CHEN · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life changing

[Erika Schoeps · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed what I did read, but I only read a few chapters as research for a project.