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The History of Sexuality, Vol. 2: The Use of Pleasure Paperback – April 14, 1990

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Michel Foucault (Author)
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Michel Foucault (Author), Robert Hurley (Translator)
4.2 out of 5 stars 11 customer reviews
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  • The History of Sexuality, Vol. 2: The Use of Pleasure
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage Books; Reissue edition (April 14, 1990)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0394751221
  • ISBN-13: 978-0394751221
  • Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #94,747 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsGood Use of Leisure
By A Customer on June 6, 2000
Format: Paperback
Although it is not as theoretically courageous, The Use of Pleasure is tenfold more interesting and approachable than the first volume in this trilogy on the history of sexuality.
Foucault delves deep into the recesses of our occidental world by attempting to answer the question, "Why is it that sexuality has become morally problematic?" Why and when did we attribute a negativity to certain sexualities? And what does this imply about sexuality itself?
Foucault works with irresistible sources (e.g. Plato's Republic; Hippocrates' Ancient Medicine) in an effort to reconstruct the Hellenic approach to sexuality. The result: a clear and fascinating delineation of the similarities and differences between modern sexual consciousness and "pagan license".
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4.0 out of 5 starsUnconventional History
By Steiner VINE VOICE on July 21, 2008
Format: Paperback
Foucault's continuation of his impressive History of Human Sexuality looks into the sexual mores and practices of the Ancient Greeks, and attempts to understand the development of sexuality as a moral problematic. Contrary to the conventional wisdom which posits a complete epistemic reversal from the Hellenic world to the Christian world, Foucault poses a more complex network of interconnections between the two paradigms, which lie in a valuation of asceticism. Although The Use of Pleasure is only a small piece of a very large story, it is an interesting development in the hermeneutics of sexuality.
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5.0 out of 5 starsTHE SECOND OF FOUCAULT’S FINAL (UNFINISHED) SERIES OF BOOKS
By Steven H Propp TOP 100 REVIEWER on December 31, 2014
Format: Paperback
Michel Foucault (1926-1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, and social theorist and activist; he wrote many books, such as Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, The Birth of the Clinic, Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction, The History of Sexuality, Vol. 3: The Care of the Self, etc. Openly gay [see the James Miller biography, The Passion of Michel Foucault], he died of AIDS---the first “public figure” in France to die of the virus.

He wrote in the opening chapter of this 1984 book (by which time he knew that he was dying), “This series of studies is being published later than I had anticipated, and in a form that is altogether different. I will explain why.Read more ›
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3.0 out of 5 starsNot Generally Recommended
By J. Miller on July 31, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
While a fascinating view into what it was like to be in the minority of free Greek men with a focus on the relation to and mastery of the self (within which sexuality is only a small part), it's difficult to maintain the tight perspective: we know that it's only free men, but what that statistically means pretty much goes without saying in the book. There's a whole lot of ancient Greek pre-science in here, and while it starts as an interesting view into what they thought, it quickly becomes tiresome. You can probably get most of the value from Foucault's research here from the interview at the end of Dreyfus & Rabinow's "Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics" -- Foucault's much more focused on what he found and has a clearly externalized perspective on ancient Greece than when he's recounting what was written down a couple of millennia ago. It might be overly terse, but I think it beats slogging though ancient discussions of moist and dry humors.
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5.0 out of 5 starslet's hear it for the boy: a greek fable
By Case Quarter VINE VOICE on July 24, 2009
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
three quotations from the use of pleasure:

1) the work that one performs on oneself, not only in order to bring one's conduct into compliance with a given rule, but to attempt to transform oneself into the ethical subject of one's behavior is ethical work. Pg 27

2) an `aesthetics of existence' is a way of life whose moral value does not depend either on one's being in conformity with a code of behavior, or on an effort of purification, but on certain formal principles in the use of pleasures, in the way one distributed them, in the limits one observed, in the hierarchy one respected. through reason and the relation to truth that governed it, such a life was committed to the maintenance and reproduction of an ontological order; moreover, it took on the brilliance of a beauty that was revealed to those able to behold it or keep its memory present in mind. Pg 89

3) the principle according to which sexual activity was meant to be regulated, the `mode of subjection' was not defined by a universal legislation determining permitted and forbidden acts; but rather by an art that prescribed the modalities of a use that depended on different variables (need, time, status). Pg 91

if a man could successfully regulate and master his behavior and, a modern word, passions, he was in a pretty good position to maintain a functioning household of which included a wife, servants and children. and success with his household indicated he was fit to govern. the man, since time immemorial went out and brought home the bacon and the wife stayed home doing housework until the husband arrived with the bacon which she would prepare, and later, if the time was right, make ready for sexual duties in hope that sons would be born who would continue the bloodline.Read more ›
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