Michel Foucault: A critic of social institutions

More than just a philosopher, Michel Foucault’s pervading theme is that human relations are defined by the struggle for power

Michel Foucault had original and interesting things to say about power, knowledge and subjectivity (Sipa/Shutterstock)

Michel Foucault’s (1926–84) influence extends beyond philosophy across the humanities and social science. He is perhaps best known for his critiques of various social institutions, most notably psychiatry, medicine and the prison system.

The British philosopher Ted Honderich once said of late 20th-century French philosophy that “it aspires to the condition of literature or the condition of art”; that one thinks of it as “picking up an idea and running with it, possibly into a nearby brick wall or over a local cliff, or something like that”. It is very easy to find examples of the kind of thing that Honderich is talking about. Here’s Jacques Derrida defining the word “sign” in Of Grammatology: “… the sign is that ill-named thing, the only one, that escapes the instituting question of philosophy: ‘what is …?’”

Yes, the crossings out are deliberate. The idea is that the erased words are inadequate to express their intended meaning, but that there aren’t any better words either. So they are put “under erasure”. David Lehman, in his book about deconstruction, Signs of the Times, says of this technique that it very quickly becomes an annoying affectation. Many people will agree with him.