Freedom and the subject were guiding themes for Michel Foucault throughout his philosophical career. Johanna Oksala identifies the different interpretations of freedom in his philosophy and examines three major divisions of it: the archaeological, the genealogical, and the ethical. She demonstrates that in order to fully appreciate Foucault's "project," we must understand his complex relationship to phenomenology, and discusses Foucault's treatment of the body in relation to recent feminist work on this topic.

Johanna Oksala explores the conceptual tools that Foucault gave us for constructing new forms of thinking as well as for smashing old certainties. She offers a lucid account of him as a thinker whose persistent aim was to challenge the self-evidence and necessity of our current experiences, practices, and institutions by showing their historical development and, therefore, contingency Extracts are taken from the whole range of Foucault's writings--his books, essays, lectures, and interviews--including the major worksHistory of Madness, The Order of Things, Discipline and...

Michel Foucault was a twentieth century philosopher of extraordinary talent, a political activist, social theorist, cultural critic and creative historian. The author explores the conceptual tools that Foucault gave us for constructing forms of thinking as well as for smashing old certainties.

Freedom and the subject were guiding themes for Michel Foucault throughout his philosophical career. Johanna Oksala identifies the different interpretations of freedom in his philosophy and examines three major divisions of it: the archaeological, the genealogical, and the ethical. She demonstrates that in order to fully appreciate Foucault's "project," we must understand his complex relationship to phenomenology, and discusses Foucault's treatment of the body in relation to recent feminist work on this topic.