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Michel Foucault

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As the two other biographies of Foucault (David Macey's and James Miller's flame thrower of a biography) are no longer in print, this objective and fair biography will suffice.

Eribon concerns his work primarily with Foucault's academic activities (a proverbial who's who of twentieth century French intellectual life) as well as his political engagements. Surprisingly these two aspects bring out a highly contradictory Foucault: on the one hand, we find a determined academic who succeeds to the College de France and becomes an important institutional figure in the French Academy; but on the other hand, there is teh Foucault who was committed to social justice, human rights, and a dedicated iconoclast who mistrusted power, authority, and the institution.

But what is lacking is a penetrating account of Foucault's last years. Eribon fast-forwards from 1977 (the year of Volonte du Savoir) to Foucualt's untimely death in 1984. This comes as a great disservice for in those seven years Foucault's work, in its absolute silence, underwent a significant and startling change. Also, missing from this period is Foucault's re-engagement with Catholicism, not as a practitioner nor a believer, but as an austere intellectual who felt great affinities with the tradition of the Church and Scholarship.

On this note, the recent collection 'Religion and Culture' includes a revealing preface by James Bernauer which reflects on Foucault's final years as he conducted research for the last two volumes of the History of Sexuality in a Catholic library.

Of the three full-length biographies on Foucault currently available in English (the other two are those by James Miller and David Macey), Didier Eribon's is unquestionably the best, but unfortunately it doesn't really fill the need for a first-rate intellectual biography. Almost thirty years after his death, Foucault is a more potent intellectual presence than ever and the need for a definitive biography is growing. Eribon's biography is solid as far as it goes, but it leaves you wanting far more than you get.

It isn't that Eribon does anything wrong. There is plenty of information on most periods of his life, The weakness of the book is that there simply isn't enough information. It is generally stated that Wittgenstein and Heidegger were the two great philosophers of the 20th Century, but it is beginning to appear that they were the two great philosophers of the first half of the 20th Century, while Habermas and Foucault were the two most important philosophers of the second half. While some important philosophers of the late 20th Century seem to have been more of a fad or of temporary influence (Derrida is a good example), Foucault is one philosopher whose influence and importance (like that of John Rawls) appears to be increasing.

Given Foucault's dominance and importance, a comprehensive and exhaustive biography would seem not only desirable, but crucial. And with many of those who knew him aging, hopefully someone is engaged in conducting interviews with them. Until we get that biography, we will have to rely on Eribon and the two other biographies, the slightly less helpful biography by Macey and the considerably less helpful biography by Miller. The latter two, as I write this the other two volumes are in print, but Eribon is sadly only available used. I would recommend seeking this one out rather than relying on either of the other two biographies.

An example of the lack of information provided by Eribon is his very slim treatment of the lectures he gave each year at the College de France. They provide a great deal of additional detail on his thinking throughout the final fourteen years of his life, but Eribon barely touches upon them. Also, though the final volume of The History of Sexuality was very close to completion, his literary executors made the decision not to allow its publication. However, many of his students have copies of that manuscript and it would have been nice to have the contents discussed in greater detail.

But until we get a better biography, this is likely as good as we are going to get. I'm excited by Paul Veyne's memoir of Foucault that is due to appear very shortly in English translation, but the real need is a full length critical biography that details his intellectual development.