Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault was one of the twentieth century's most influential thinkers whose work has unsettled and transformed the field of social philosophy and the social sciences. The essays and articles selected for this volume are written by many of the most important of Foucault's interpreters and interlocutors and show the range of Foucault's influence and the debates it has provoked about Foucault's own approaches and in relation to substantive areas of social philosophy and social science such as power, critique, enlightenment, law, governance, ethics and truthfulness. This volume provides a comprehensive introduction to, and overview of, the development of Foucault's thought and demonstrates its enduring significance on our understanding of how we have become what we are.

David Owen is Head of the Division of Politics & International Relations and Professor of Social & Political Philosophy, Southampton University, UK.

Contents: Introduction. Part I Methodology: Archaeology: Michel Foucault's immature science, Ian Hacking; Foucault and epistemology, Richard Rorty; Foucault's archaeological method: a response to Hacking and Rorty, Thomas E. Wartenberg. Genealogy: Criticism and captivity: on genealogy and critical theory, David Owen; Genealogy as critique, Raymond Geuss; Genealogy and subjectivity, Martin Saar. Part II Freedom and Power: Foucault on freedom and truth, Charles Taylor; Taylor and Foucault on power and freedom, Paul Patton; Taylor and Foucault on power and freedom: a reply, Charles Taylor; Foucault's subject of power, Paul Patton. Part III Critique and Normativity: the Foucault-Habermas Debate: The critique of impure reason: Foucault and the Frankfurt school, Thomas McCarthy; To think and act differently: Foucault's four reciprocal objections to Habermas' theory, James Tully. Part IV On Enlightenment: Question, ethos, event: Foucault on Kant and enlightenment, Colin Gordon; Foucault and enlightenment: a critical reappraisal, Amy Allen. Part V On Political Reason: Political theory of war and peace: Foucault and the history of modern political theory, Pasquale Pasquino; Government in Foucault, Barry Allen; Politics as government: Michel Foucault's analysis of political reason, Barry Hindess; From micro-powers to governmentality: Foucault's work on statehood, state formation, statecraft and state power, Bob Jessop. Part VI On Law: Foucault's expulsion of law: toward a retrieval, Alan Hunt; Between governance and discipline: the law and Michel Foucault, Victor Tadros; Governed by law?, Nikolas Rose and Mariana Valverde. Part VII On Ethics, the Aesthetics of Existence and Parrhesia: Two kinds of practice: on the relation between social discipline and the aesthetics of existence, Christoph Menke; Truth and subjectivation in the later Foucault, Thomas R. Flynn; Philosophical parrhesia as aesthetics of existence, Jakub FranÄ>k; Truthfulness, risk and trust in t