FOUCAULT, MICHEL (PAUL)

born Oct. 15, 1926, Poitiers, Fr. died June 25, 1984, Paris French structuralist philosopher noted for his examination of the concepts and codes by which societies operate, especially the principles of exclusion (such as the distinctions between the sane and the insane) by which a society defines itself. The son of a physician, Foucault studied under the Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser at the cole Normale Suprieure, Paris. He taught at the University of Clermont-Ferrand between 1960 and 1968 and then spent two years at the University of Paris-Vincennes. From 1970 until his death he was professor of the history of systems of thought at the Collge de France. Foucault's early studies concerned the history of mental illness and society's response to it. Society's use of the concept of madness in the 17th century is the subject of his Folie et Draison: Histoire de la folie l'ge classique (1961; Madness and Civilization). In his book Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la prison (1975; Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison) he examined the origins of the modern penal system. In these and other books, Foucault put forth the thesis that institutions such as asylums, hospitals, and prisons are society's devices for exclusion and that by surveying social attitudes in relation to these institutions, one can examine the development and uses of power. Among Foucault's other works are Les Mots et les choses: Une Archologie des sciences humaines (1966; The Order of Things: An Archaeologie of Human Sciences) and L'Archologie du savoir (1969; The Archaeology of Knowledge). His Histoire de la sexualit, 3 vol. (197684; History of Sexuality), which examined the history of Western attitudes toward sexuality since the ancient Greeks, confirmed his reputation as one of the leading French intellectuals of his day.