The Birth of Biopolitics

Foreword: François Ewald and Alessandro Fontana
Introduction: Arnold I. Davidson
10 January 1979
17 January 1979
24 January 1979
31 January 1979
7 February 1979
14 February 1979
21 February 1979
7 March 1979
14 March 1979
21 March 1979
28 March 1979
4 April 1979
Course Summary
CourseContent
Index of Notions
Index of Names

Paul-Michel Foucault, geb. 15. Okt. 1926 in Poitiers, gest. am 25. Juni 1984 an den Folgen einer HIV-Infektion; studierte Philosophie und Psychologie in Paris. 1952 Assistent für Psychologie an der geisteswissenschaftlichen Fakultät in Lille; 1955 Lektor an der Universität Uppsala (Schweden). Nach Direktorenstellen an Instituten in Warschau und Hamburg kehrte er 1960 nach Frankreich zurück, wo er bis 1966 als Professor für Psychologie und Philosophie an der Universität Clermont-Ferrand arbeitete. 1965 und 1966 war er Mitglied der Fouchet-Kommission, die von der Regierung für die Reform des (Hoch-)Schulwesens eingesetzt wurde. Nach einer Gastprofessur in Tunis (1965-68) war er an der Reform-Universität von Vincennes tätig (1968-70). 1970 wurde er als Professor für Geschichte der Denksysteme an das renommierte Collège de France berufen. Gleichzeitig machte er durch sein politisches Engagement auf sich aufmerksam. 1975-82 unternahm er Reisen nach Berkeley, Japan, Iran und Polen.

'Once more Michel Foucault demonstrates that he was perhaps the most prescient and challenging thinker of the twentieth century, and these lectures from 1978-9 have an enduring relevance for all those seeking to understand the forms of liberalism under which we are governed at the start of the twenty first century.' - Nikolas Rose, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK'This is an excellent translation of Michel Foucault's fascinating lectures on the history of the arts or sciences of liberal government from Adam Smith to the neo-liberalism of the German and Chicago Schools. They throw critical light on the roots of neo-liberal globalization today.' - James Tully, University of Victoria, Canada'A brilliant, lucid and supremely relevant survey of the true origins of the state which cuts through the imprecision of much more theory and offers ideas which are of direct relevance not just to academics but to those engaged in the political process. A reminder that academic analysis need not be dull and irrelevant. A text, drawn from live speech, which captures the magic of a brilliant mind at work.' - Nick Butler, Cambridge Centre for Energy Studies, UK Praise for the series: 'These lectures offer important insights into the evolution of the primary focus of Foucault's later work - the relationship between power and knowledge.' - <EM>Library Journal</EM> 'Ideas spark off nearly every page...The words may have been spoken in [the 1970s] but they seem as alive and relevant as if they had been written yesterday.' - <EM>Bookforum</EM> 'Foucault is quite central to our sense of where we are...' - <EM>The Nation</EM> '[Foucault] has an alert and sensitive mind that can ignore the familiar surfaces of established intellectual codes and ask new questions...[He] gives dramatic quality to the movement of culture.' - <EM>The New York Review of Books</EM>