PHILOSOPHER

Michel Foucault

1926 - 1984

Photo of Michel Foucault

Icon of person Michel Foucault

Paul-Michel Foucault (UK: , US: ; French: [pɔl miʃɛl fuko]; 15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of social control through societal institutions. Though often cited as a structuralist and postmodernist, Foucault rejected these labels. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Michel Foucault has received more than 6,778,220 page views. His biography is available in 85 different languages on Wikipedia. Michel Foucault is the 46th most popular philosopher (down from 40th in 2019), the 60th most popular biography from France (down from 46th in 2019) and the 5th most popular French Philosopher.

Michel Foucault is most famous for his work on the history of society and the human sciences.

Memorability Metrics

  • 6.8M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 84.34

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 85

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 11.17

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.59

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of Michel Foucaults by language


Among PHILOSOPHERS

Among philosophers, Michel Foucault ranks 46 out of 1,089. Before him are Ludwig Wittgenstein, Maria Montessori, Parmenides, Origen, Thomas More, and Al-Farabi. After him are Karl Popper, Protagoras, Hannah Arendt, Henri Bergson, Plotinus, and Zeno of Elea.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1926, Michel Foucault ranks 4. Before him are Elizabeth II, Marilyn Monroe, and Fidel Castro. After him are Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ingvar Kamprad, Jiang Zemin, Leslie Nielsen, Chuck Berry, Sathya Sai Baba, Dario Fo, and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. Among people deceased in 1984, Michel Foucault ranks 1. After him are Richard Burton, Yuri Andropov, Indira Gandhi, Ray Kroc, François Truffaut, Paul Dirac, Johnny Weissmuller, Ed Gein, Truman Capote, Martin Niemöller, and Mikhail Sholokhov.

Others Born in 1926

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Others Deceased in 1984

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In France

Among people born in France, Michel Foucault ranks 60 out of 5,234. Before him are Cardinal Richelieu (1585), Edgar Degas (1834), Georges Bizet (1838), Pierre de Fermat (1601), Brigitte Bardot (1934), and Arthur Rimbaud (1854). After him are Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1520), Hector Berlioz (1803), Maurice Ravel (1875), Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780), Henri Becquerel (1852), and Gustave Eiffel (1832).

Others born in France

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Among PHILOSOPHERS In France

Among philosophers born in France, Michel Foucault ranks 5. Before him are René Descartes (1596), Montesquieu (1689), Auguste Comte (1798), and Michel de Montaigne (1533). After him are Henri Bergson (1859), Peter Abelard (1079), Jean Bodin (1530), Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809), Roland Barthes (1915), Gilles Deleuze (1925), and Charles Fourier (1772).

French born Philosophers

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