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  • Published: 14 November 2019
  • ISBN: 9780141991368
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288

The History of Sexuality: 1

The Will to Knowledge




The third volume of Foucault's pioneering analysis of sexuality and power relations, now reissued in Penguin Modern Classics

In the third volume of his acclaimed examination of sexuality in modern Western society, Foucault investigates the Golden Age of Rome to reveal a decisive break from the classical Greek version of sexual pleasure. Exploring the moral reflections of philosophers and physicians of the era, he identifies a growing anxiety over sexual activity and its consequences. At the core of this transformation Foucault found the principles of the 'care of the self': the belief that the self is an object of knowledge to be cultivated over time, and the implications this has for ethics and behaviour.

  • Published: 14 November 2019
  • ISBN: 9780141991368
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288

About the author

Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault was one of the most influential thinkers in the contemporary world. Social scientist and historian of ideas, Foucault was Profesor of History of Systems of Thought at the Collège de France. He wrote frequently for French newspapers and reviews, and edited Critique. Among his many publications are Madness and Civilisation (1961); The Archaeology of Knowledge (1972); The Birth of the Clinic (1973); Discipline and Punish (1975); and three volumes of The History of Sexuality: Volume One, The Will To Knowledge (1976); Volume Two: The Use of Pleasure (1984); and Volume Three: The Care of the Self (1984). Many of his books are published by Penguin. Ethics and Aesthetics, the first and second parts of a three volume Essential Works of Michael Foucault, were recently published by Penguin. Power, part three, was recently published by Allen Lane. Professor Foucault died in 1994.

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Praise for The History of Sexuality: 1

'A magnificent treasure-trove ... Foucault's great achievement is to illuminate an entire and cohesive body of thought. It is brilliantly done'

Daily Telegraph