Confessions of the Flesh, Michel Foucault
Confessions of the Flesh, Michel Foucault
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Confessions of the Flesh
Volume 4 of The History of Sexuality

Author: Michel Foucault, Frédéric Gros, Frédéric Gros, Robert Hurley

Narrator: Elliot Fitzpatrick

Unabridged: 15 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/26/2023


Synopsis

One of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century, Michel Foucault made an indelible impact on Western thought. The first three volumes in his History of Sexuality constitute some of Foucault's most important work. This fourth volume posits that the origins of totalitarian self-surveillance began with the Christian practice of confession. The manuscript had long been secreted away, in accordance with Foucault's stated wish that there be no posthumous publication of his unpublished work.

With the sale of the Foucault archives in 2013, Foucault's nephew felt that the time had come to publish this final volume in Foucault's seminal history. Philosophically, it is a chapter in his hermeneutics of the desiring subject. Historically, it focuses on the remodeling of subjectivity carried out by the early Christian Fathers, who set out to transform the classical Logos of truthful human discourse into a theologos—the divine Word of a pure sovereign.

What did God will in the matter of righteous sexual practice? Foucault parses out the logic of the various responses proffered by theologians over the centuries, culminating with Saint Augustine's fascinating discussion of the libido. Sweeping and deeply personal, Confessions of the Flesh is a tour de force from a philosophical master.

Author Bio

Michel Foucault (1926-1984) was a French philosopher, historian, social theorist, and philologist. He lectured in universities throughout the world; served as the director at the Institut Francais in Hamburg, Germany, and at the Institute de Philosophie at the Faculte des Lettres in the University of Clermont-Ferrand, France; and wrote frequently for French newspapers and reviews. At the time of his death in 1984, he held a chair at France's most prestigious institution, the College de France.One of the leading intellectuals of the twentieth century and the most prominent thinker in post-war France, Foucault's work influenced disciplines as diverse as history, sociology, philosophy, sociology, and literary criticism. His works include The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences; Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason; and Death and the Labyrinth: The World of Raymond Roussel.

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