Foucault 4: HoS 3

Primitive Secularization of Sex

The shift in the 18th century toward scientific, rather than religious, analysis of sexuality

Degeneracy Theory

The belief that sexual deviance could be inherited and threaten society

Bourgeois Sexual Self-Regulation

The idea that the bourgeoisie imposed sexual discipline on themselves to preserve lineage

Psychoanalysis Origin

Developed as a response to bourgeois self-repression and a means to manage it

Biopower

A form of power focused on managing life through discipline of bodies and regulation of populations

Disciplinary Power

The treatment of the body as a machine to optimize productivity and efficiency

Population Regulation

The management of reproduction and population through policies and social controls

Symbolics of Blood

Pre-modern power centered on lineage, blood, and the right to kill

Analytics of Sex

Modern power centered on regulating sexuality and life processes

Sex as Construct

Sex itself is produced by discourse and the deployment of sexuality, not a purely natural fact

Sexual Totalization

The idea that sex becomes the key explanatory principle for all aspects of human life

Escape from Sexuality

The possibility of freedom through abandoning discourse about sex and focusing on bodily pleasure itself

Arts of Existence

Practices through which individuals shape themselves and their lives as ethical and aesthetic projects

Problematization

The process by which aspects of life (like sexuality) become objects of moral and philosophical concern

Aesthetics of Existence

The idea of living one’s life as a work of art through self-governance and ethical practices