Foucault and Philosophy

One of the most influential contemporary thinkers, Michel Foucault produced a complex body of work across a wide range of academic disciplines. Foucault and Philosophy presents a collection of thought provoking essays that explore Foucault s writings as a philosopher both in relation to philosophers who were important to him and in the context of a range of significant themes and areas of dispute in contemporary philosophy. Foucault s personal philosophical development and his contributions to a broader field of philosophical reflection are revealed through a series of thematically arranged contributions from an international cast of distinguished philosophers and leading Foucault scholars. Foucault s philosophical development is first traced through essays that place him in the context of his relationship to ancient philosophy, phenomenology, Marxism, structuralism; and to figures such as Kant, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Habermas, and others. Further essays then evaluate the major contribution of Foucault s thought to some of the central philosophical problems of our time, including freedom, knowledge, subjectivity, ethics, power, and the nature of philosophy itself. With the 25th anniversary of Foucault s death upon us, Foucault and Philosophy offers a timely and invaluable scholarly reconsideration of the philosophical development and legacy of a controversial and iconic figure of 20th-century thought.