Foucault

Japanese: フーコー

French philosopher and historian. Graduated from the École Normale. Studied under Althusser, Canguilhem, and Dumézil, and studied philosophy and psychopathology. From 1955, while studying abroad in Uppsala and Warsaw, he wrote "History of Madness" (1961), which explores the confinement of madness by authorities in modern times and the discourse surrounding it. Returning to France in 1963, he captured the shift in medical discourse at the time of the establishment of modern medicine in "The Birth of the Clinic," billed as an "archeology" from a medical perspective, and wrote "Raymond Roussel," taking an interest in the literature of Blanchot, Bataille, and others. His 1966 book "Words and Things," subtitled "Archaeology of the Humanities," explores the organization of knowledge and discourse in modern human sciences, and argues that "mankind" is nothing but the product of such discourse. It is said that the book "sold like baguettes." In the autumn of the same year, he went to the University of Tunis, but in 1968, after the May Revolution, he was appointed full professor of philosophy at the University of Paris-Vincennes, where he worked with left-wing students and deepened his friendship with Deleuze. In 1970, he became professor at the Collège de France. He continued to be involved in political activities, such as organizing a prison research group, and in 1975, he captured the micro-structure of power control in his book The Birth of the Prison. In order to develop this new theory of power, he planned to write four volumes of The History of Sexuality, and in the first volume, The Will to Knowledge (1976), he questioned the relationship between the organization of sexual discourse and power, but later changed his plans and wrote The Use of Pleasure and Care of the Self (both 1984), which elucidate the history of self-discipline in life going back to ancient Greece. He also preached his own discipline of life, including homosexuality, as an "aesthetics of survival." He died of AIDS. His other works include "The Archaeology of Knowledge," which attempts to shift the concept from discourse to the concept of statement, and "The Lives of People Stained with Infamy," which was written with the intention of compiling the first-hand testimonies of early modern criminals.
→ Related topics Kittler | Structuralism | Discourse | Bachelard | Velázquez | Poststructuralism | Magritte

Foucault

French physicist. He collaborated with Fizeau on experiments on heat and light, and in 1850 improved Fizeau's method, measuring the speed of light using a rotating mirror, proving that the speed of light is slower in water than in air, thus confirming the wave theory of light. He also discovered the Foucault pendulum and Foucault currents (eddy currents).
→Related topic: Speed of light

Source : Heibonsha Encyclopedia About MyPedia Information

Japanese:

フランスの哲学者，歴史家。エコール・ノルマル卒。アルチュセール，カンギレム，デュメジルらに学び，哲学，精神病理学を修める。1955年よりウプサラ，ワルシャワなどで在外研究のかたわら，《狂気の歴史》（1961年）を書き，近代における権力による狂気の閉じ込めとその言説を剔抉する。フランスに帰って1963年，医学的眼差しの〈考古学〉と銘うたれた《臨床医学の誕生》で近代医学成立における医学的言説の転換をとらえ，またブランショ，バタイユらの文学に関心を寄せ，《レーモン・ルーセル》を著す。1966年の《言葉と物》は〈人文科学の考古学〉と副題され，近代人文諸科学における知と言説の編制を究明，〈人間〉とはそうした言説の産物にほかならないとした。同書は〈バケットパンのように売れた〉といわれる。同年秋チュニス大学に赴くが，1968年，五月革命後に新設されたパリ大学バンセンヌ校の哲学正教授に就任，左翼学生と共闘し，またドゥルーズと交友を深める。1970年コレージュ・ド・フランス教授。以後も刑務所調査集団を組織するなど政治活動に携わり，1975年《監獄の誕生》では権力支配のミクロ的構造をとらえる。その新たな権力論を展開すべく《性の歴史》４巻を企て，第１巻《知への意志》（1976年）で性言説の編制と権力の関係を問うが，のち計画を変更，古代ギリシアまで遡って生の自己規律の歴史を解明する《快楽の活用》《自己への配慮》（ともに1984年）を著す。また同性愛を含む自身の生の規律を〈生存の美学〉として説く。エイズで死去。他の著作に言説概念から言表概念への転換を試みた《知の考古学》，近世犯罪者の生の証言集を企図して書かれた《汚名に塗(まみ)れた人々の生活》など。
→関連項目キットラー｜構造主義｜ディスクール｜バシュラール｜ベラスケス｜ポスト構造主義｜マグリット