The Truth Of Madness

Michel Foucault is a famous French philosopher in the 20 th century.The influences of his theories are profound and far-reaching.His theories have important influences not only in the field of philosophy,but also in the fields of history,sociology,politics,medicine,psychology,and other fields.Madness and civilization is one of his earliest books,which is very important in his thought.In the book,Foucault analyzed the madness theme and criticized rationalism.The paper is based on Foucault's Madness and Civilization,and has studied the history of Foucault's madness.It tries to reveal the complex relationships of madness and rationality discussed by Foucault and what the truth of the madness is.It also tries to reveal Foucault's thought from his analysis.The paper includes preface,text and epilogue three parts.The introduction part introduces the research background and significance,the research status at home and abroad,the research objectives and methods,and the research innovations and deficiencies.The text part includes four parts.The first part discusses the madness and its truth in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance;The second part discusses the madness and its truth in the Classical Age;The third part discusses the madness and its truth in the modern period;The fourth part discusses the truth of madness which was discussed by Foucault.The epilogue gives a summary of the whole paper.The main point of the paper is the madness that Foucault had discussed is neither rationality nor irrationality.Madness is the construction of culture,it is not the object of objective knowledge,so the truth of madness could not be revealed.Foucault discussed the madness,criticized rationalism and revealed the repression of culture on humans,it is to say that the social culture repressed humans subject.The main innovations are that the paper is based on Madness and Civilizationrather than an abridged edition of it,it tries to describe Foucault's madness in detail and explore the values of the text of the book,and I will propose my own viewpoints from the text of the book.The main deficiencies are that the paper lacks contrast with Foucault's later thought,the theme of madness has been much researched,and my interpretations and conclusions may unavoidably have improprieties and mistakes.