Michel Foucault: Key Concepts

Key Concepts

by Diana Taylor

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

210 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 30, 2010

About the author

Diana Taylor is University Professor and Professor of Performance Studies and Spanish at New York University. She is the author and editor of several books, including Performance; The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas; and Disappearing Acts: Spectacles of Gender and Nationalism in Argentina's “Dirty War,” all also published by Duke University Press. Taylor was founding director of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics from 1998 to 2020. In 2018 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

我觉得这本书很好看，提供给我一些新的认识或者具体说明了我曾经模糊的感受。主要是一些作者每人写了一篇对于福柯著作关键概念的理解组成的十二篇文章。
刚开始有些无聊以及理解困难的地方，不想读我就粗略的看看。我觉得我近期还会再随手翻开看看，真的挺治疗忧愁缓解负面情绪的，买了另一个人写的福柯的生死爱欲，还想看看他关于主体性两本书。
第五章关于自由的论述
例如，福柯在《规训与惩罚》中描述的大量心理监控和干预创造了这样一个社会，其中，人们将自己理解为一种心理的(Psychological beings)。作为结果，他们认为，自己的不愉快有着心理上的根源，并需要接受心理治疗。他们并未质疑自己生存其中的社会的性质，而是自我质疑。必须改变的，是他们自己，而不是社会的规划。这将把任何针对社会规划的批评意见转移到那些心怀不满之人的身上，从而反过来强化这些社会规划。就起源而言，所有问题都变成了心理的，而不是社会的或政治的。
在这种情况下，权力通过所谓的约束(constraint)而非强制(restraint)来发挥作用。但就像强制一样，约束可以对一个人的选择加以限制。比如说，通过使人们成为一种心理的人，它创造了一种遵从，同时降低了社会抵抗或尝试其他生活方式的可能性。此外，它较之强制要更为有效。当一个人被强制时，他依然可以欲想被禁止之物。然而，当一个人被约束时，他将被塑造为只能对公认的适合欲想之物加以欲想。人们不仅被阻止获取其欲想之物；对呈现在自己面前的可能的社会选择，他们甚至无法考虑替代方案。
对啊，有时候人的负面情绪明明就是社会环境造成的，会反思是我不够努力，我性格原因哪里做的不好，因容貌或者金钱产生的焦虑。当我自勉说什么我无法改变环境但我可以改变自己来适应这个环境。你会说都怪环境，我去报复社会变成反社会人格吗？但是有些就是整个环境的作用，人不应该过多自我苛责。第十二章提出自我构建的概念。
其中有一章也说了福柯的一些争议，思想上可能存在问题矛盾的部分。
我最喜欢第九章。
我花时间来做一些事情：上学，吃饭，睡觉，和朋友出去闲逛，消磨时间，自娱自乐，思考我究竟在做什么。有时候，我的生活似 乎由一连串相当随机的事件组成。在另一些时候，我意识到，我所做的许多事情(也许是绝大多数事情)都包含一定的顺序。在这时，我将发现，我的生活由形形色色的规划与任务构成。我常常为达成某一目标而采取行动。这一目标常常又不过是达成另一目标的手段。例如，我去上学，是为了接受教育；我接受教育，是为了找一份好工作；我找一份好工作，是为了挣很多钱，这样，我便能养活自己，或许还能养活整个家庭。
这一目标常常又不过是达成另一目标的手段。多么好笑啊哈哈哈，现在家长教育孩子不就是这样好好读书考个好大学，多赚点钱生活的更好更舒服。这种思想的问题，自己如何实践自我的艺术。

[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.