Histories of Violence

Biography

Michel Foucault was born on October 15 in Poiters, France. His father, an eminent surgeon, had hoped Foucault would follow him into the same profession and so the young Foucault’s early education was tailored to this end. However, it was not until Foucault studied philosophy at the Saint-Stanislas school did he excel academically. Graduating from sixth-form at the Lycee Henri-IV, in Paris, Foucault had to his credit an impressive academic record and gained entrance to the most prestigious French higher education institution for Humanities studies, the Ecole Normale Superieure. Here Foucault gained a BA equivalent degree in Psychology in 1947 and a second in Philosophy, in 1950. Passing his agregation on his second attempt in 1951, he began work in a psychiatric hospital during the early part of the 50s. From 1954-1958 he moved to Sweden to teach at the University of Uppsala. Following this he spent consecutive years teaching at the University of Warsaw and the University of Hamburg. In 1959 Foucault received his doctorate under the supervision of the famous French philosopher, Georges Cangulheim. In the 1960s Foucault was head of the philosophy department and the University of Clermont-Ferrand. During this time he met Daniel Defret, a philosophy student whose political activism made a profound influence on Foucault, and the two entered into a relationship that lasted for the rest of Foucault’s life. So, when Defret went to Tunisia, Foucault followed, teaching in Tunisia from 1966 to 1968. They both returned to Paris when Foucault became the head of the Philosophy department at the University of Paris-VII at Vincennes.

While Foucault would classify his work as philosophy, he does not conceptualise philosophy in an orthodox way, so the discipline takes issue with how to classify his work. For Foucault, philosophy is not a project for legitimising what is already known, but to analyse the ways that might exist for us to think differently. In critiquing ‘truth’ he engages philosophy with history to reveal the power relations that have been created and perpetuated to make certain options ‘truths’. This engagement with history is what distinguishes him from the field of philosophy more generally as that is a field which generally defines itself as being independent of history.

Foucault died in Paris on June 26 1984 from AIDS an related illness. His partner, Defret, began a series of AIDS awareness programmes upon Foucault’s death, including the creation of the first AIDS awareness organisations in France, AIDES. Foucault was undoubtedly the most influential academic of the second half of the 20th century. He is today the most cited intellectual worldwide in the humanities, according to The Times Higher Education Guide. 

Michel Foucault was born on October 15 in Poiters, France. His father, an eminent surgeon, had hoped Foucault would follow him into the same profession and so the young Foucault’s early education was tailored to this end. However, it was not until Foucault studied philosophy at the Saint-Stanislas school did he excel academically. Graduating from sixth-form at the Lycee Henri-IV, in Paris, Foucault had to his credit an impressive academic record and gained entrance to the most prestigious French higher education institution for Humanities studies, the Ecole Normale Superieure. Here Foucault gained a BA equivalent degree in Psychology in 1947 and a second in Philosophy, in 1950. Passing his agregation on his second attempt in 1951, he began work in a psychiatric hospital during the early part of the 50s. From 1954-1958 he moved to Sweeden to teach at the University of Uppsala. Following this he spent consecutive years teaching at the University of Warsaw and the University of Hamburg. In 1959 Foucault received his doctorate under the supervision of the famous French philosopher, Georges Cangulheim. In the 1960s Foucault was head of the philosophy department and the University of Clermont-Ferrand. During this time he met Daniel Defret, a philosophy student whose political activism made a profound influence on Foucault, and the two entered into a relationship that lasted for the rest of Foucault’s life. So, when Defret went to Tunisia, Foucault followed, teaching in Tunisia from 1966 to 1968. They both returned to Paris when Foucault became the head of the Philosophy department at the University of Paris-VII at Vincennes.

While Foucault would classify his work as philosophy, he does not conceptualise philosophy in an orthodox way, so the discipline takes issue with how to classify his work. For Foucault, philosophy is not a project for legitimising what is already known, but to analyse the ways that might exist for us to think differently. In critiquing ‘truth’ he engages philosophy with history to reveal the power relations that have been created and perpetuated to make certain options ‘truths’. This engagement with history is what distinguishes him from the field of philosophy more generally as that is a field which generally defines itself as being independent of history.

Foucault died in Paris on June 26 1984 from AIDS an related illness. His partner, Defret, began a series of AIDS awareness programmes upon Foucault’s death, including the creation of the first AIDS awareness organisations in France, AIDES. Foucault was undoubtedly the most influential academic of the second half of the 20th century. He is today the most cited intellectual worldwide in the humanities, according to The Times Higher Education Guide.