Foucault

Philosophy, history, psychology, sociology, medicine, gender studies, literary and cultural critique.

Power, self identity, epistemology, and the evolution of systems of thought and meaning.

Social construction and Human Nature

Structuralism An attempt to unify the human sciences by

applying a single methodology

Saussure and Levi-Strauss Breaking down language into precise units

and then interpreted objectively Interpretations relied upon very precise

definitions of concepts

No one text has meaning, rather it is a web of relations

Text is penetrated by outside forces “ever shifting, unstable, and open to

question”

Normal v. Abnormal Time based concepts We define normal through abnormal

Accounting for the individual through the development of science and the study of death

Episteme

What constitutes as acceptable?

Man becomes both object and subject of study

▪ The advent of human sciences

Human Nature▪ We can only see the world on our own terms

Challenges Sartre and Existential Freedom

▪ Meaning is not predetermined by outside forces, it is constructed by men – we make it up as we go

The Resistance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TDSLaDZ

HLo&feature=related

Everything is accounted for by the system.

Power acts through us Power is the texture of our lives, we live it

rather than have it, and we can not escape it.

Power-knowledge

A shift in understanding of power▪ Traditional power;

▪ Monolithic, hierarchical, clearly visible

▪ New notions:▪ Ensures by right, technique, normalization, control▪ More subtle than traditional roles, thus easier to

overlook and harder the resist

Scientia Sexualis and Ars Erotica The truth of sexual procedure versus the

erotic art, and the truth that is drawn from pleasure.

The invention of the homosexual