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The use of pleasure : volume 2 of the history of sexuality / Michel Foucault; translated from the French by Robert Hurley.

By: Contributor(s): Publication details: New York : Vintage Books, 1990.Description: 293 pages : 21 cmISBN:
  • 9780394751221
Subject(s):
Contents:
Introduction. 1. Modifications -- 2. Forms of problematization -- 3. Morality and practice of the self --- Part 1. The moral problematization of pleasures. 1. "Aphrodisia" -- 2. "Chrēsis" -- 3. "Enkrateia" -- 4. Freedom and truth --- Part 2. Dietetics. 1. Regimen in general -- 2. The diet of pleasures -- 3. Risks and dangers -- 4. Act, expenditure, death --- Part 3. Economics. 1. The wisdom of marriage -- 2. Ischomachus' household -- 3. Three policies of moderation --- Part 4. Erotics. A problematic relation -- 2. A boy's honour -- 3. The object of pleasure --- Part 5. True love.
Summary: In this sequel to The History of Sexuality, Volume I: An Introduction, the brilliantly original French thinker who died in 1984 gives an analysis of how the ancient Greeks perceived sexuality. Throughout The Uses of Pleasure Foucault analyzes an irresistible array of ancient Greek texts on eroticism as he tries to answer basic questions: How in the West did sexual experience become a moral issue? And why were other appetites of the body, such as hunger, and collective concerns, such as civic duty, not subjected to the numberless rules and regulations and judgments that have defined, if not confined, sexual behavior?

Introduction. 1. Modifications -- 2. Forms of problematization -- 3. Morality and practice of the self --- Part 1. The moral problematization of pleasures. 1. "Aphrodisia" -- 2. "Chrēsis" -- 3. "Enkrateia" -- 4. Freedom and truth --- Part 2. Dietetics. 1. Regimen in general -- 2. The diet of pleasures -- 3. Risks and dangers -- 4. Act, expenditure, death --- Part 3. Economics. 1. The wisdom of marriage -- 2. Ischomachus' household -- 3. Three policies of moderation --- Part 4. Erotics. A problematic relation -- 2. A boy's honour -- 3. The object of pleasure --- Part 5. True love.

In this sequel to The History of Sexuality, Volume I: An Introduction, the brilliantly original French thinker who died in 1984 gives an analysis of how the ancient Greeks perceived sexuality. Throughout The Uses of Pleasure Foucault analyzes an irresistible array of ancient Greek texts on eroticism as he tries to answer basic questions: How in the West did sexual experience become a moral issue? And why were other appetites of the body, such as hunger, and collective concerns, such as civic duty, not subjected to the numberless rules and regulations and judgments that have defined, if not confined, sexual behavior?

Translation of : L'usage des plaisirs.