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Historical review by michel foucault (1926-1984): Concept of science and incidence in psychology

Abstract:

Michel Foucault was born in Poitiers, France, on October 15, 1926. He was a brilliant student. He established himself academically during the 1960s, holding a number of positions in French universities, before being elected in 1969 to the prestigious Collège de France, where he taught the history of systems of thought until his death. From the 1970s on-wards, Foucault was very active politically. He was one of the founders of the Groupe d’information sur les prisons and often protested on behalf of marginalized groups. He often lectured outside of France, particularly in the United States, and by 1983 he had agreed to teach annually at the University of California at Berkeley. As an early victim of AIDS, Foucault died in Paris on June 25, 1984. In addition to the works published during his lifetime, his lectures at the Collège de France, published posthumously, contain important elucida-tions and amplifications of his ideas. His academic training was in psychology and history, as well as in philosophy, his books were mostly stories of medical and social sciences, his passions were literary and political. Nevertheless, almost all of Foucault’s works can be read fruitfully as philosophical in one or both ways: as the realization of the traditional critical project of philosophy in a new (historical) way; and as a critical commitment to the thinking of traditional philosophers.