The History of Sexuality, Vol. 3: The Care of the Self

by Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault takes us into the first two centuries of our own era, into the Golden Age of Rome, to reveal a subtle but decisive break from the classical Greek vision of sexual pleasure. He skillfully explores the whole corpus of moral reflection among philosophers (Plutarch, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca) and physicians of the era, and uncovers an increasing mistrust of pleasure and growing anxiety over sexual activity and its consequences.

• ISBN10: 0394741552
• ISBN13: 9780394741550
• Publish Date: 28 November 1988
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Random House USA Inc
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 288
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780394741550

Reviews

[jamiereadthis]

Like volume two, repetitive, debatable, and digested with a grain of salt. This passage from Seneca though:

“Disce gaudere, learn how to feel joy,” says Seneca to Lucilius: “I do not wish you ever to be deprived of gladness. I would have it born in your house; and it is born there, if only it is inside of you… for it will never fail you when once you have found its source.”

Or this Pseudo-Lucian pledge:

“To unite my bones with his and not to keep even our dumb ashes apart.”