Foucault, Michel 1926-84
French philosopher and historian of ideas

Born in Poitiers, he was a student of the Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser and became Professor of History of Systems of Thought at the Coll�ge de France, Paris (1970). He wrote a series of very influential and provocative books including Histoire de la folie (1961, Eng trans Madness and Civilization, 1971), Les Mots et les choses (1966, Eng trans The Order of Things, 1970), L'Arch�ologie du savoir (1969, Eng trans The Archaeology of Knowledge, 1972) and Histoire de la sexualit� (1976, Eng trans The History of Sexuality, 1984). His basic thesis in tracing the changing historical assumptions about what counts as 'knowledge' at any one time was both relativistic and cynical. Prevailing social attitudes are manipulated by those in power, both to define such categories as insanity, illness, sexuality and criminality, and to use these in turn to identify and oppress the 'deviants'.