Foucault, Michel Paul (1926-1984)

French philosopher who argued that human knowledge and subjectivity are dependent upon specific institutions and practices, and that they change through history. In particular, he was concerned to subvert conventional assumptions about ‘social deviants’ - the mentally ill, the sick, and the criminal - who, he believed, are oppressed by the approved knowledge of the period in which they live.

Foucault rejected phenomenology and existentialism, and his historicization of the self challenges the ideas of Marxism. He was deeply influenced by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, and developed an analysis of the operation of power in society using Nietzschean concepts.

His publications include Histoire de la folie/Madness and Civilization (1961) and Les Mots et les choses/The Order of Things (1966).