Michelle? Foucault (1926 ~ 1984), a French philosopher and historian, is a representative of "post-structuralism". Born in poitiers, western France, his father is a surgeon. After graduating from high school, I entered Paris Normal College to study psychology. After graduating from college, I worked in a psychological clinic and worked part-time in a prison. Since 1954, he has worked in many universities. 196 1 wrote madness and civilization, and later published important works such as words and things and archaeology of knowledge. Among them, the publication of Words and Things has aroused great repercussions and brought great honor to it. Foucault is one of the most important philosophers and thinkers in the 20th century. His "archaeological" research on the history of human knowledge has influenced most social sciences.

Madness and Civilization consists of three parts: preface, text and conclusion:

Foucault clearly pointed out in the preface that the purpose of this book is to determine the nature of madness and rationality by tracing the history of madness in history.

The text includes nine chapters. The first chapter, "The Boat of Fools", starts from many leprosy hospitals in the Middle Ages, and talks about a kind of boat of fools popular in the Middle Ages, which transports lunatics from one town to another in order to keep them wandering so that towns can expel them. The second chapter, "The Great Confinement", describes the confinement houses that existed widely in17th century. The third chapter discusses 17 and 18 century people's views on crazy people. The fourth chapter "Passion and Delirium" discusses the structure of madness. Foucault believes that behind madness is people's attitude towards passion and delirium. The fifth chapter, "the stage of madness", describes different kinds of madness. Chapter VI, "Doctors and Patients", describes various methods of treating madness in history. The seventh chapter "The Great Fear" describes a kind of fear that appeared in the west in the middle of18th century. Fear comes from confinement, and people think that there is a mysterious disease circulating among confined lunatics. Chapter 8 describes people's desire to distinguish between lunatics and criminals since18th century. Chapter 9 "The Birth of Mental Hospital" describes the birth and function of mental hospital.

In the conclusion, Foucault draws a conclusion by commenting on several oil paintings by Spanish painter Goya, and shows the nature of madness.

Madness and Civilization is Foucault's doctoral thesis, which was published before the defense. This work is greatly influenced by Nietzsche, and Foucault hopes that he can conduct cultural research under the "glory of the great Nietzsche's exploration". He wrote a book "Mental Illness and Personality" before, so the theme of "Madness and Civilization" is mental illness for a reason.

Madness and Civilization is the foundation work of Foucault's whole ideological system, which is of great value for understanding Foucault's profound thoughts. The rationality and madness expounded in the book, especially the discourse analysis of madness and the textual research of knowledge archaeology, completely overthrew the rational concept on which western traditional philosophy depends. It is of great significance to the further diversification of western thought. This book has a great influence on western literary theory in particular. Foucault, contrary to the argument that traditional literary theory regards literature as a reflection of ideology and an imitation of social conditions, thinks that literature is a reflection of people's discourse mode of social exclusion and castration and a manifestation of crazy experience. These views promoted the emergence of American new historicism.

Discourse and Things mainly expounds Foucault's theory of discourse practice. In the book, Foucault put forward a viewpoint for the first time, that is, "individuals who undertake scientific discourse are determined by the historical conditions that govern and dominate them in their environment, function, perceptual ability and practical possibility". It is this condition that provides a basis for understanding culture and knowledge patterns. Here, the author criticizes the traditional view of subject and puts forward the view of "man dies", arguing that man is not a natural fact, but a historical knowledge construction. The psychoanalysis initiated by Freud and Levi-Strauss's structuralism subverts the existing dominant knowledge forms and makes these traditional knowledge forms "illegal"; It is believed that modern philosophy has surpassed the pursuit of truth and human liberation. Foucault especially criticized Sartre's existentialism philosophy, thinking that existentialism is "the last line of defense established by the bourgeoisie against Marx". Then, Foucault analyzed the knowledge forms in three different historical periods in western history. In his view, there were three different types of knowledge during the Renaissance, classical and modern. During the Renaissance, the relationship between words and things was based on the principle of "imitation". In the classical era initiated by the Enlightenment, this relationship was based on the principle of "similarities and differences" and became the basis of grammar, natural history and economic analysis. After the world enters the modern era, people "return to language", and under the influence of the cognitive model of modern humanities, they find that language is a "rude existence". Therefore, in contemporary times, the authenticity of language reflecting the world and existence is increasingly questioned and criticized. Foucault believes that the transformation from the classical discourse and the representation system of things to the modern way has brought about the division of the knowledge system. The knowledge system originally integrated in the name of "science" has been divided into two independent systems, namely, humanities and natural sciences. Finally, Foucault believes that with the development of knowledge system, human knowledge system will still be divided and new knowledge system will appear.

Nietzsche had a great influence on Foucault. Nietzsche declared that "God is dead". Foucault pointed out that with the death of God, "man" must die. It is in the process of thinking about "human death" that Foucault published a purely academic work "Words and Things". In fact, Foucault gave a speech at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil before the publication of 1966. The basis of the speech was the Story Draft, but there was little response at that time.

But after the book was published, it was an amazing success. This book quickly became a best seller, and it was printed more than a dozen times in three or four years, with a total print run of 1 10000. For a purely academic and extremely difficult book, it is extremely rare to reach such a best-selling level. At first, the book aroused enthusiastic response in academic circles, and many structuralists admired Words and Things, believing that it brought about the demise of existentialism and provided a "new way of thinking" for mankind. Then, the public also enthusiastically accepted the book, and many people used whether they owned or read the book as a criterion to judge whether the other party could read or not.

Words and Things brought Foucault a worldwide reputation. The book's main contribution is to study the evolution of modern western thought and put forward its own "theory of discourse practice", which provides a powerful weapon for western social science and natural science to reflect on their own history and knowledge status.