Von der Freundschaft als Lebensweise. Im Gespräch

by Michel Foucault, Marianne Karbe (Übersetzer), Walter Seitter (Übersetzer)

143 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1985

About the author

Paul-Michel Foucault 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.

Reviews

[svemanze]

"Man beklagt sich immer, daß die Medien die Menschen manipulieren. Etwas Menschenverachtung steckt in dieser Vorstellung. [...] Der Geist ist nicht weich wie Wachs. Er ist eine reaktive Substanz."

[Wolf Ostheeren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sammlung von Interviews und Artikeln, die teilweise aufregend gut sind, teilweise etwas trivial daherkommen, teilweise wenig ergiebig sind, wenn man die besprochenen Bücher nicht gelesen hat/die betreffenden Denker nicht kennt, aber trotzdem immer ein paar spannende Denkanstöße enthalten. Bei einigen der Texte ist allerdings der Zusammenhang mit dem Titel (und dadurch erhofften Inhalt) schwer erkennbar. Darüber hinaus ist das Buch schlampig lektoriert mit einer störenden Menge von Rechtschreibfehlern

[Unentschieden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bestimmt nicht das wichtigste Buch von Foucault, zumal auch ein paar Texte woanders neu übersetzt wurden, glaube ich. Aber nett kurzweilig und viele seiner Gedanken machen immer wieder Spaß!

[Kristina Janisch · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75