Description: "On May 27, 1978, Michel Foucault gave a lecture to the French Society of Philosophy where he redefines his entire philosophical project in light of Immanuel Kant's 1784 text, "What Is Enlightenment?" Foucault strikingly characterizes critique as the political and moral attitude consisting in the "art of not being governed in this particular way," one that performs the function of destabilizing power relations and creating the space for a new formation of the self within the "politics of truth." This volume presents the first critical edition of this crucial lecture alongside a previously unpublished lecture about the culture of the self and three public debates with Foucault at the University of California, Berkeley in April 1983. There, for the first time, Foucault establishes a direct connection between his reflections on Enlightenment and his analyses of Greco-Roman antiquity. However, far from suggesting a return to the ancient culture of the self, Foucault invites his audience to build a "new ethics" that bypasses the traditional references to religion, law, and science"--
Brief description: Michel Foucault (1926-1984) was a French philosopher and historian who held the Chair of the History of Systems of Thought at the Collège de France. His many books in English include The Order of Things, Discipline and Punish, The History of Sexuality, and "Discourse and Truth" and "Parrēsia," the latter also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Review Quotes: "Between 1978 and 1983, Foucault's work underwent a dramatic and much-discussed shift from a focus on governmentality and biopolitics to an exploration of ancient techniques and practices of the self. This new volume juxtaposes two texts that chart this transformation and situate it in relation to Foucault's simultaneously emerging interest in reanimating Kantian notions of critique and enlightenment. This volume will be an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Foucault's late work and its relevance for the practice of critical theory, broadly construed."--Amy Allen, Penn State University