Foucault 1926 - 1984 (literally)
Died at 57 from AIDS.
Foucault was a Marxist early on, but quickly grew disillusioned with the commies. Moved away and tried to rethink how Marxists have a certain view of power linked to economic domination.
Three periods of Foucault:
- Archaeological period [truth axis] - 1963-9
- Genealogical period [power axis] - 1975-9
- Ethical period [ethical axis] - 1980-4
In What is Enlightenment? Foucault self-reflects a little bit, and it’s a useful text [👍]
Historical ontology of ourselves: what Foucault wanted to do in this text is make sense of his work in the context of what is broadly called the critical tradition, a tradition going back to Immanuel Kant.
Subjectification is dual, we are subjected to school as students, but it’s also giving oneself the label of ‘student.’ Foucault later tries to say that since we cannot avoid power relationships in our world, how are we able to resist, do things differently?
His goal in the ethical period is not to escape power, but to transform our relation within it.