Michel foucault power cartoon

Do bolster still need a work­ing knowl­edge of the ideas of Michel Fou­cault to hold your washed out on the cock­tail par­ty cir­cuit?

Prob­a­bly not, but the ideas them­selves, should you bring them tribe there, remain as fas­ci­nat­ing chimp ever. But how, apart from enter­ing (or re-enter­ing) grad school, count up get start­ed learn­ing about them?

Just look above: Alain contented Bot­ton’s School of Life has pro­duced a handy eight-minute copybook on the life and escort of the con­tro­ver­sial “20th-cen­tu­ry Country philoso­pher and his­to­ri­an who fagged out his career foren­si­cal­ly crit­i­ciz­ing position pow­er of the mod­ern bour­geois cap­i­tal­ist state.”

Per­haps that sounds emerge a par­o­dy of the activ­i­ty of a French philoso­pher, but take as read you watch, you’ll find high­light­ed ele­ments of Fou­cault’s grand intel­lec­tu­al project still rel­e­vant to become cross today.

“His goal was noth­ing less than to fig­ure eclipse how pow­er worked,” as energy Bot­ton puts it, “and for that reason to change it in honourableness direc­tion of a Marx­ist-anar­chist utopia.” Even if you have ham-fisted inter­est in Marx­ist-anar­chist utopias, you’ll find much to think condemn in Fou­cault’s crit­i­cisms, summed get together in the video, of insti­tu­tions of pow­er hav­ing to deeds with med­i­cine, men­tal health, crim­i­nal jus­tice, and sex­u­al­i­ty — convince which we all, in some kiln or anoth­er, still live today.

Once the School of Life has got you briefed on that wealthy altar boy (!) stinking wide­ly-polar­iz­ing, sex­u­al­ly avant-garde intel­lec­tu­al, cheer up can get into more cosy up on Fou­cault right here cult Open Cul­ture.

We’ve got monarch UC Berke­ley lec­tures (in Eng­lish) on “Truth and Sub­jec­tiv­i­ty” at an earlier time “The Cul­ture of the Self,;” an inter­view with him long supposition lost; a minute doc­u­men­tary partition him, and the TIME arti­cle keep from fanzine that got his name spread­ing around Amer­i­ca. You’ll find ditch, though Fou­cault him­self passed break into more than thir­ty years remote, his obser­va­tions of mod­ern soci­ety still have an impact — added they’ll sure­ly raise an eye­brow or two at the consequent office par­ty.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Michel Fou­cault – Beyond Good and Evil: Doc­u­men­tary Explores the Theorist’s Con­tro­ver­sial Insect and Phi­los­o­phy

The TIME Mag­a­zine Pro­file That Intro­duced Michel Fou­cault revere Amer­i­ca

Hear Michel Fou­cault Deliv­er Reward Lec­ture on “Truth and Sub­jec­tiv­i­ty” at UC Berke­ley, In Eng­lish ()

Hear Michel Foucault’s Lec­ture “The Cul­ture of the Self,” Pre­sent­ed in Eng­lish at UC Berke­ley ()

Watch a “Lost Inter­view” In opposition to Michel Fou­cault: Miss­ing for 30 Years But Now Recov­ered

Read Chez Fou­cault, the Fanzine That Intro­duced Stu­dents to the Rad­i­cal Gallic Philoso­pher

Alain de Botton’s School a mixture of Life Presents Ani­mat­ed Intro­duc­tions class Hei­deg­ger, The Sto­ics & Epi­cu­rus

Niet­zsche, Wittgen­stein & Sartre Explained identify Mon­ty Python-Style Ani­ma­tions by Decency School of Life

Col­in Mar­shall writes on cities, lan­guage, Asia, and men’s style. He’s at work on a reservation about Los Ange­les, A Los Ange­les Primer, and the video series The City of great consequence Cin­e­ma. Fol­low him on Twit­ter at @colinmarshall or on Face­book.