Foucault, Michel

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Foucault, Michel (1926–84) French philosopher and social historian. Foucault was professor of the history of systems of thought at the Collège de France (1970–84). He examined the social and historical contexts of ideas and institutions, such as school, prison, police force and asylum. For Foucault (like Nietzsche), social scientific knowledge and power are inextricably linked. His main theme was how Western systems of knowledge (such as psychiatry) have changed humans into subjects. His works include Madness and Civilization (1961), Discipline and Punish (1975), and The Order of Things (1966).

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