Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology (Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, Vol. 2) [Paperback]

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

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1999

The definitive edition of Foucault's articles, interviews, and seminars.

Few philosophers have had as strong an influence on the twentieth century as Michel Foucault. His work has affected the teaching of any number of disciplines and remains, twenty years after his death, critically important. This newly available edition is drawn from the complete collection of all of Foucault's courses, articles, and interviews, and brings his most important work to a new generation of readers.

Aesthetics, Method and Epistemology (edited by James D. Faubion) surveys Foucault's diverse but sustained address of the historical forms and interplay of passion, experience, and truth.

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Michel Foucault (1926-1984) is the author of Madness and Civilization, Discipline and Punish, The History of Sexuality, and many other books. James D. Faubion is a professor of anthropology at Rice University. He is the author of The Shadows and Lights of Waco and Modern Greek Lessons: A Primer in Historical Constructivism.

Product Details

• Paperback: 488 pages
• Publisher: The New Press; 1 edition (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565845587
• ISBN-13: 978-1565845589
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #380,598 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

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

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"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.