Michel Foucault
Philosopher and historian of ideas · 1926–1984
Foucault was a French philosopher who studied how power works through institutions such as prisons, hospitals and asylums, notably in Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexuality. He was active in prison reform and gay rights causes.
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Estimated from their documented words and actions. A simplification, not a verdict.
He was suspicious of centralised state power but proposed no clear institutional programme.
He criticised liberal democracy's hidden forms of control without endorsing autocracy.
He co-founded the Prison Information Group and analysed surveillance as a technique of domination.
He backed international human-rights causes such as aid to Vietnamese boat people.
No strong recorded view on war or the military.
He supported the rights of immigrants and opposed exclusion of marginal groups.
He was on the political left, though his late lectures examined neoliberalism with some interest.
He was wary of state power, including in economic management.
No strong recorded view on trade.
He was secular, though he briefly praised the 'political spirituality' of Iran's 1978 revolution.
He challenged established norms on sexuality, madness and punishment.
No strong recorded view on technology.