Essays

Lectures on the Will to Know: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1970–1971, and Oedipal Knowledge

– Foucault, Michel. Lectures on the Will to Know: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1970–1971, and Oedipal Knowledge. Translated by Graham Burchell, edited by Daniel Defert. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Lectures on the Will to Know reminds us that Michel Foucault’s work only ever had one object: truth. Here, he builds on his earlier work, Discipline and Punish, to explore the relationship between tragedy, conflict, and truth-telling. He also explores… More

The Courage of Truth (the Government of Self and Others II): Lectures at the Collège de France, 1983–1984

– Foucault, Michel. The Courage of Truth (the Government of Self and Others II): Lectures at the Collège de France, 1983–1984. Translated by Graham Burchell, edited by Frédéric Gros. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
The Courage of the Truth is the last course that Michel Foucault delivered at the Collège de France. Here, he continues the theme of the previous year’s lectures in exploring the notion of “truth-telling” in politics to establish a number… More

The Government of Self and Others: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1982–1983

– Foucault, Michel. The Government of Self and Others: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1982–1983. Translated by Graham Burchell, edited by Frédéric Gros. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
This lecture, given by Michel Foucault at the Collège de France, launches an inquiry into the notion of parresia and continues his rereading of ancient philosophy. Through the study of this notion of truth-telling, of speaking out freely, Foucault… More

The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978–1979

– Foucault, Michel. The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978–1979. Translated by Graham Burchell, edited by Michel Senellart. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
The Birth of Biopolitics continues to pursue the themes of Foucault’s lectures from Security, Territory, Population. Having shown how eighteenth-century political economy marks the birth of a new governmental rationality–seeking maximum… More

Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977–1978

– Foucault, Michel. Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977–1978. Translated by Graham Burchell, edited by Michel Senellart. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Marking a major development in Foucault’s thinking, this book takes as its starting point the notion of “biopower,” studying the foundations of this new technology of power over populations. Distinct from punitive disciplinary systems, the… More

Psychiatric Power: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1973–1974

– Foucault, Michel. Psychiatric Power: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1973–1974. Translated by Graham Burchell, edited by Jacques Lagrange. New York: Picador, 2008.
In Psychiatric Power, the fourth volume in the collection of his groundbreaking lectures at the Collège de France, Michel Foucault addresses and expands upon the ideas in his seminal Madness and Civilization, sketching the genealogy of psychiatry and of its… More

The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the Collège de France 1981–1982

– Foucault, Michel. The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the Collège de France 1981–1982. Translated by Graham Burchell, edited by Frédéric Gros. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
The Hermeneutics of the Subject is the third volume in the collection of Michel Foucault’s lectures at the Collège de France, where faculty give public lectures on any topic of their choosing. Attended by thousands, Foucault’s lectures were… More

Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975–1976

– Foucault, Michel. Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975–1976. Translated by David Macey, edited by Mauro Bertani and Allesandro Fontana. New York: Picador, 2003.
From 1971 until 1984 at the Collège de France, Michel Foucault gave a series of lectures ranging freely and conversationally over the range of his research. In Society Must Be Defended, Foucault deals with the emergence in the early seventeenth century of a… More

Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1974–1975

– Foucault, Michel. Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1974–1975. Translated by Graham Burchell, edited by Valerio Marchetti and Antonella Salomoni. New York: Picador, 2003.
The lectures comprising Abnormal begin by examining the role of psychiatry in modern criminal justice, and its method of categorizing individuals who “resemble their crime before they commit it.” Building on the themes of societal self-defense in… More

Fearless Speech

– Foucault, Michel. Fearless Speech. Edited by Joseph Pearson. Los Angeles, CA: Semiotext(e), 2001.  
Comprised of six lectures delivered, in English, by Michel Foucault while teaching at Berkeley in the Fall of 1983, Fearless Speech was edited by Joseph Pearson and published in 2001. Reviewed by the author, it is the last book Foucault wrote before his death… More

Power (The Essential Works of Foucault, 1954–1984, Vol. 3)

– Foucault, Michel. Power (The Essential Works of Foucault, 1954–1984, Vol. 3). Translated Robert Hurley, edited James D. Faubion. New York: New Press, 1999.  
Power, the third and final volume of The New Press’s “Essential Works of Foucault” series, draws together Foucault’s contributions to what he saw as the still-underdeveloped practice of political analysis. It covers the domains Foucault helped… More

Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology (Essential Works of Foucault, 1954–1984, Vol. 2)

– Foucault, Michel. Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology (Essential Works of Foucault, 1954–1984, Vol. 2). Edited by James D. Faubion. New York: New Press, 1999.
This newly available edition is drawn from the complete collection of all of Foucault’s courses, articles, and interviews, and brings his most important work to a new generation of readers. Aesthetics, Method and Epistemology (edited by James D. Faubion)… More

Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth (Essential Works of Foucault, 1954–1984, Vol. 1)

– Foucault, Michel. Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth (Essential Works of Foucault, 1954–1984, Vol. 1). Edited by Paul Rabinow. New York: New Press, 1998.
Ethics (edited by Paul Rabinow) contains the summaries of Foucault’s renowned courses at the Collège de France, paired with key writings and interviews on friendship, sexuality, and the care of the self and others. –The New Press

Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault

– Foucault, Michel. Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault. Edited by Luther H. Martin, Huck Gutman, and Patrick H. Hutton. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988.  
Shortly before his death in 1984, Michel Foucault spoke of an idea for a new book on “technologies of the self.” He described it as “composed of different papers about the self…, about the role of reading and writing in constituting… More

The Foucault Reader

– Foucault, Michel. The Foucault Reader. Edited by Paul Rabinow. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984.  
Michel Foucault was one of the most influential thinkers in the contemporary world, someone whose work has affected the teaching of half a dozen disciplines ranging from literary criticism to the history of criminology. But of his many books, not one offers a… More

Sexuality and Solitude

– Foucault, Michel, and Richard Sennett. “Sexuality and Solitude.” London Review of Books 3, no. 9 (May 21, 1981).

Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977

– Foucault, Michel. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977. Translated by Colin Gordon, Leo Marshall, John Mepham, and Kate Soper; edited by Colin Gordon. New York: Pantheon Books, 1980.
Now, in this superb set of essays and interviews, Foucault has provided a much-needed guide to Foucault. These pieces, ranging over the entire spectrum of his concerns, enabled Foucault, in his most intimate and accessible voice, to interpret the conclusions… More