In this remarkable book Michel Foucault, one of the most influential thinkers of recent times, calls us to look critically at specific historical events in order to uncover new layers of significance. In doing so, he challenges our assumptions not only about history, but also about the nature of language and reason, even of truth. By analyzing the methods of observation that underpinned the origins of modern medical techniques, Foucault is able to identify "that opening up of the concrete individual, for the first time in Western history, to the language of rationality, that major event in the relationship of man to himself and of language to things." The scope of such an undertaking is vast, but it is Foucault's skill that, by means of his uniquely engaging narrative style, his penetrating gaze is able to confront our own. After reading his words our perceptions are never quite the same again.
Author(s): Michel Foucault
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 225
Table of contents hyperlinked......Page 1
INTRODUCTION......Page 6
NOTES......Page 16
1. SPACES AND CLASSES......Page 17
NOTES......Page 33
2. A POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS......Page 35
NOTES......Page 49
3. THE FREE FIELD......Page 51
NOTES......Page 65
4. THE OLD AGE OF THE CLINIC......Page 67
NOTES......Page 76
5. THE LESSON OF THE HOSPITALS......Page 77
NOTES......Page 98
6. SIGNS AND CASES......Page 101
NOTES......Page 119
7. SEEING AND KNOWING......Page 122
NOTES......Page 137
8. OPEN UP A FEW CORPSES......Page 139
NOTES......Page 186
10. CRISIS I N FEVERS......Page 188
NOTES......Page 208
CONCLUSION......Page 211
I. NOSOLOGY......Page 215
II. MEDICAL ADMINISTRATION AND GEOGRAPHY......Page 216
III. REFORM OF PRACTICE AND TEACHING......Page 218
IV. METHODS......Page 220
V. MORBID ANATOMY......Page 222
VI. FEVERS......Page 223
