Foucault was born in France in 1926. He was a philosopher who studied philosophy, psychology, and psychopathology. He taught in a number of different locations including Paris where he became a professor of the history of systems of thought at the College de France in 1970.

Many believe his most important writings were Histoire de la folie which was written in 1961 and is translated as Madness and Civilization, Les mots et les choses written in 1966 and translated as The Order of Things, and the Histoire de la sexualite which he was writing at the time of his death, and is translated The History of Sexuality.

Foucault attempted to show that the basic ideas which people normally take to be permanent truths about human nature and society change in the course of history. Foucault’s theories challenged the ideas and influence of philosopher Karl Marx as well as Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. His theories challenged people's assumptions about prisons, the police, insurance, care of the mentally ill, gay rights, and welfare, he forced people to think about this social issues and hopefully challenge the complacency of the day. Foucault was a postructuralist. A Postructrualist (1) does not believe in absolutes, (2) does not believe in truth, (3) sees history as a series of human observations, and (4) does not establish absolute goals.

Foucault’s primary influences came from philosophers Frederick Nietzsche who argued that human behavior is motivated by a will to power and that traditional values had lost their power over society, and Martin Heidegger criticized what he called “our current technological understanding of being.

Books and Publicatons

A History of Sexuality

Discipline and Punishment