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Confessions of the Flesh

The History of Sexuality, Volume 4

The History of Sexuality, Volume 4

By Michel Foucault
Edited by Frederic Gros
Translated by Robert Hurley

By Michel Foucault
Edited by Frederic Gros
Translated by Robert Hurley

By Michel Foucault
Edited by Frederic Gros
Translated by Robert Hurley

By Michel Foucault
Edited by Frederic Gros
Translated by Robert Hurley

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Hardcover $32.50

Feb 16, 2021 | ISBN 9781524748036

Ebook $16.99

Feb 16, 2021 | ISBN 9781524748043

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    About Confessions of the Flesh

    The fourth and final volume in Michel Foucault’s acclaimed History of Sexuality, completed just before his death in 1984 and finally available to the public
     
    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—which trace cultural and intellectual notions of sexuality, arguing that it has been profoundly shaped by the power structures applied to it—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had long been secreted away, in accordance with Foucault’s stated wish that there be no posthumous publication of his unpublished work.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

    About Confessions of the Flesh

    The fourth and final volume in Michel Foucault’s acclaimed History of Sexuality, completed just before his death in 1984 and finally available to the public
     
    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—which trace cultural and intellectual notions of sexuality, arguing that it has been profoundly shaped by the power structures applied to it—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

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Also by Michel Foucault

    Discipline and Punish
    The Birth of the Clinic
    The Order of Things
    The History of Sexuality
    The History of Sexuality, Vol. 2
    See all books by Michel Foucault

    Also by Michel Foucault

    Discipline and Punish
    The Birth of the Clinic
    The Order of Things
    The History of Sexuality
    The History of Sexuality, Vol. 2
    See all books by Michel Foucault

    About Michel Foucault

    MICHEL FOUCAULT, one of the leading philosophical thinkers of the 20th century, was born in Poitiers, France, in 1926. He lectured in universities throughout the world; served as director at the Institut Français in Hamburg, Germany and at the Institut de Philosophie… More about Michel Foucault

    About Michel Foucault

    MICHEL FOUCAULT, one of the leading philosophical thinkers of the 20th century, was born in Poitiers, France, in 1926. He lectured in universities throughout the world; served as director at the Institut Français in Hamburg, Germany and at the Institut de Philosophie… More about Michel Foucault

    Product Details

    Category: Philosophy | Psychology

    Hardcover | $32.50
    Published by Pantheon
    Feb 16, 2021 | 416 Pages | 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 | ISBN 9781524748036

    Category: Philosophy | Psychology

    Ebook | $16.99
    Published by Pantheon
    Feb 16, 2021 | 416 Pages | ISBN 9781524748043

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    Praise

    “A brilliant, challenging contribution to the history of ideas.”
    — Kirkus Reviews (*starred*) 

    “Michel Foucault is a thinker from whose writing one can infer lessons for our modern lives and dilemmas.”
    —The Boston Globe

    “This is required reading for those who cling to stereotyped ideas about our difference from the Greeks in terms of pagan license versus Christian austerity, or their hedonism versus our anxiety.”
    —Los Angeles Times Book Review

    “Foucault remains a vital reference point, and his History of Sexuality remains required reading.”
    —Los Angeles Review of Books

    Table Of Contents

    Foreword vii
     
    Part I. The Formation of a New Experience 1
    1. Creation, Procreation 3
    2. The Laborious Baptism 37
    3. The Second Penance 58
    4. The Art of Arts 79
     
    Part II. Being Virgin 111
    1. Virginity and Continence 117
    2. On the Arts of Virginity 135
    3. Virginity and Self-Knowledge 158
     
    Part III. Being Married 191
    1. The Duty of Spouses 193
    2. The Good and the Goods of Marriage 221
    3. The Libidinization of Sex 256
     
    Appendices 287
    Notes 325
    Bibliography 385
    Translator’s Note 379

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