“What Is Critique?” and “The Culture of the Self”

Description

Newly published lectures by Foucault on critique, Enlightenment, and the care of the self.  
On May 27, 1978, Michel Foucault gave a lecture to the French Society of Philosophy where he redefines his entire philosophical project in light of Immanuel Kant’s 1784 text, “What Is Enlightenment?” Foucault strikingly characterizes critique as the political and moral attitude consisting in the “art of not being governed in this particular way,” one that performs the function of destabilizing power relations and creating the space for a new formation of the self within the “politics of truth.”
 
This volume presents the first critical edition of this crucial lecture alongside a previously unpublished lecture about the culture of the self and three public debates with Foucault at the University of California, Berkeley in April 1983. There, for the first time, Foucault establishes a direct connection between his reflections on Enlightenment and his analyses of Greco-Roman antiquity. However, far from suggesting a return to the ancient culture of the self, Foucault invites his audience to build a “new ethics” that bypasses the traditional references to religion, law, and science. Michel Foucault (1926–1984) was a French philosopher and historian who held the Chair of the History of Systems of Thought at the Collège de France. Henri-Paul Fruchaud is an editor of Michel Foucault’s posthumous works. Daniele Lorenzini is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Arnold I. Davidson is Distinguished Professor of Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as the Robert O. Anderson Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago. Clare O’Farrell is a senior lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. She is the founding editor of Foucault Studies. Editors’ Note

Translator’s Note Abbreviations of Works by Michel Foucault
Introduction What Is Critique? (Lecture to the Société française de Philosophie | May 27, 1978) The Culture of the Self (Lecture at the University of California, Berkeley | April 12, 1983) Discussion with the Department of Philosophy
Discussion with the Department of History
Discussion with the Department of French