Philosophy 189

The course is meant to serve as an introduction to Foucault’s work and will deal with the three phases in the work that Foucault himself distinguished: his concern with the epistemic structure of knowledge claims in the human and social sciences (roughly, Foucault’s work in the 1960’s); his preoccupation with power, sexuality, and politics (in the 1970’s); and his examination of the processes of self-formation (in the1980’s).

Special attention will be given to Foucault’s middle period. The course will focus on a close reading of The Order of Things, Discipline and Punish, The History of Sexuality, vol. 1,Power/knowledge, and The Use of Pleasure, plus a reader with a selection of shorter writings.