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Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics
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Product Description
To demonstrate the sense in which Foucault's work is beyond structuralism and hermeneutics, the authors unfold a careful, analytical exposition of his oeuvre. They argue that during the of Foucault's work became a sustained and largely successful effort to develop a new method—"interpretative analytics"—capable fo explaining both the logic of structuralism's claim to be an objective science and the apparent validity of the hermeneutical counterclaim that the human sciences can proceed only by understanding the deepest meaning of the subject and his tradition.
"There are many new secondary sources [on Foucault]. None surpass the book by Hubert Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow. . . . The American paperback edition contains Foucault's 'On the Genealogy of Ethics,' a lucid interview that is now our best source for seeing how he construed the whole project of the history of sexuality."—David Hoy, London Review of Books
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #61829 in Books
- Published on: 1983-12-15
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 271 pages
Customer Reviews
Overall and insightful consideration about M. Foucault
I haven't yet read all of this book but I think this book is very useful and helpful to understand the thought of Foucault that is hard to understand. There are many authers' insightful consideration about Foucault's thought and they explain it chronologically. So readers of this book can easily follow the development process of Foucault's thought. Although readers must have the knowledge of European philosophy, I recommend this book for all readers who want to know the overall thought of Foucault.
Disappointing
I was very excited to read this book after seeing the unanimous five-star reviews. I am a beginner when it comes to Foucault, though am fairly well-versed in the central contributions of Freud, Saussure, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Derrida, and know about Kant's phenomenal/neumenal scheme, so felt I had sufficient background to tackle a book like this. However, having just about finished the book, I have to say I was quite disappointed. It is actually not very accessible in many places and presupposes much background knowledge (even beyond that of the philosophers I brought along). I think it would be helpful for someone who is already quite familiar with Foucault's other writings and the intellectual milieu in which he wrote, to get a "big picture", but it is not so helpful if you are approaching it as and introduction to Foucault to get a survey of his thought. In fact, compared to the prose in the book, I found the actual essay by Foucault in the back of the book, "The Subject and Power," refreshingly clear and intelligible. A much more helpful introduction, in my opinion, is Gary Gutting's "Foucault: A Very Short Introduction."
Clearer than Foucault
Having read most of Foucault and some of the jargon-laced incoherence that passes for scholarship on his work, I'd say this is the clearest, most coherent text you will find on Foucault. Dreyfus is a great explainer and clarifier of other philosophers (if he can rescue Heidegger from the being-in-the-swamp of his own verbiage, he can rescue anyone), and in this case, he makes Foucault clearer than I thought possible. Also, Dreyfus knew Foucault at Berkeley and was invited by Foucault to lecture in France, so I'm sure this personal connection gave him additional insight into Foucault's project.
I have never been a fan of Foucault or the cult that has sprung up around him in seemingly every corner of the academic world, but Dreyfus and Rabinow at least convinced me that Foucault had something to say and explained what that was more clearly than Foucault ever managed to himself. I highly recommend this book, but it would help to have some background in philosophy (i.e. Kant) before you read it -- probably not required, but it would be helpful.
