Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology (Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984) [Hardcover]

Michel Foucault (Author), James D. Faubion (Editor), Paul Rabinow (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1998 | Series: Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984 (Book 2)

The second volume in the definitive collection of Foucault's shorter writings, a Voice Literary Supplement bestseller. Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology explores one of the lesser known aspects of Foucault's oeuvre. This volume surveys the philosopher's diverse but sustained address of the historical forms and interplay of passion, experience, and truth. These selections, most of which have not previously appeared in English translation, are a testament to the extraordinary range of Foucault's insight. They include commentaries on the work of de Sade, Rousseau, Marx, Freud, Roussel, and Boulez. They also include some of Foucault's most trenchant reflections on the historical constitution and the historical diagnostics of both the aesthetic and the critical imagination, providing unique insight into the development of Foucault's original and exemplary philosophical program.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The second of three volumes (following Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth, LJ 3/15/97) to be excerpted from the Gallimard collection of Foucault's oeuvre, this work provides American readers with diverse lectures, literary and film reviews, and interviews concerning language, literature, authorship, imagination, psychology, order, and history. At midpoint in the volume, the lecture "What is an author?" fairly describes the project of this series: "Writing unfolds like a game that invariably goes beyond its own rules and transgresses its limits." Each of these pieces is thoroughly self-contained but significant to a greater understanding of both its subject and its author. Wittily, one piece included here is Foucault's pseudonymously authored biographical dictionary entry on himself. For all scholars and many lay readers familiar with Foucault.?Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Michel Foucault (1926-1984) was one of the most important and influential thinkers of the twentieth century. Books by Foucault in Penguin include The History of Sexuality (3 vols) and Discipline and Punish. Paul Rabinow is Professor of Anthropologyat the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of The Foucault Reader, published by Penguin. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 486 pages
• Publisher: New Press (March 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565843290
• ISBN-13: 978-1565843295
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,797,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For nerds and for new comers, January 27, 2000

By 

"tksc" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology (Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, Vol. 2) (Paperback)

It is not so easy to determine where Foucault is attempting to go with his published books. In this sense, the books from "Madness and Civilization" to the 3rd "History of Sexuality" can be thought of as practical works that have specific institutional and discursive aims. Thus, they are short in explanation of the methodology and instead such intentions are available as they are practiced in the texts. For example, philosophers such as Nietzsche and Marx, to name a few, are hardly mentioned in Foucault's book; however, they are often evoked and utilised without obvious references or footnotes. As Deleuze once commented: Foucault doesn't say what to do, he just does it.

Thus, Foucault's occasional essays, covering academic journals, popular press, lectures, introductions, and so on, serve to clue us, the readers, as to where Foucault is coming from, and, furthermore, in which direction his thought is heading.

This edition, covering Foucault's superb writings on literature, his mentors, music, as well as other philosophical movements, situates a thinker within an intellectual context from his very own words. In "The Archaeology of Knowledge" Foucault begins by saying "do not ask me who I am..." To be sure, with this volume, we can begin to better understand Foucault without the interface of commentators and scholars. Directness of discourse is an important element in Foucault's thought...

Although much of the pieces that appear here have been previously translated and released in a variety of formats, I predict that any scholar or occasional reader would be pleased to accept this redundancy for the very convenience that this collection presents.

Some most interesting pieces include, the previously hard to find Foucault's response to Derrida's reading of "Madness and Civilization"; Foucault's responses to the Epistemology circle; and an illuminating interview in which Foucault situates his thought in 20th Century French intellectual life. In addition, this collection includes popular 'staple' such as "Theatrum Philosophicum," "Nietzsche, Freud, Marx," and "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History," all of which provide endless insight into Foucault even despite numerous re-readings.

While serious followers of Foucault's works would benefit greatly from this collection, this would also serve as a good introduction to Foucault--maybe second only to the cartoon books on Foucault!

And to close: if Nietzsche was the greatest philosophical stylist, this collection demonstrates conclusively that Foucault was a close second...

3 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ?, September 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology (Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, Vol. 2) (Paperback)

Michel Foucault , i think should be read by anyone read and liked Nietzsche.