Truth in the Late Foucault: Antiquity, Sexuality and Psychoanalysis

(Hardback)

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The first full treatment of truth as a core philosophical concept in the late Foucault, this volume examines his work on the ancient world and the early church. Each essay features a deep examination as to how the topics of truth and sexuality intersect with and focus on Foucaults engagement with ancient philosophy and thought. Truth in the Late Foucault offers readings on Plato, Artemidorus, Cicero, Sophocles and the Stoics, and pays close attention to Cassian, Paulinus of Nola, and early Christian practices of confession. With the publication of the long-awaited volume 4 of the History of Sexuality: Confessions of the Flesh, the shape of the final Foucault is now brought into stark relief. As well as looking at ancient thought, the contributors explore Foucaults work in relation to philosophers such as Gadamer, Heidegger, Derrida and Descartes. Foucaults long-running and often contentious dialogue with psychoanalysis, on the relation between truth and the subject, is also examined. Each essay not only makes an important statement, but also is part of an interconnected arc of topics and understanding, covering both the ancient and modern periods. This book reveals that Foucaults concern with antiquity raises questions deeply pertinent to the present moment.

Reviews

This collection is indispensable for an understanding in Foucaults later thought and how the problem of truth is entangled with Foucaults paradigm shifting writings on sexuality. -- Richard Alston, Professor of Roman History, Royal Holloway, UK

Author Bio

Paul Allen Miller is Carolina Distinguished Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature at the University of South Carolina, USA, and Distinguished Guest Professor of English at Ewha Womans University, Republic of Korea. He is the author of Foucaults Seminars on Antiquity: Learning to Speak the Truth (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021).