The Will to Knowledge. Michel Foucault

In The Will to Know, the famous French philosopher Michel Foucault analyzes the transformation of Western ideas about sex and the emergence of a new discourse on sexuality in the 19th century. Contrary to the popular belief that this century was puritanical and repressed sexuality, he argues that this period was, on the contrary, a time of great explosion of discussions about sex—scientific, legal, medical, and cultural—that ultimately established a new discourse on sexuality that, in many ways, is still valid today. This allows the philosopher to proclaim that, in a radical sense, “we are all Victorians.” Although The Will to Know is part of a larger series called The History of Sexuality, it can be read as a separate, independent study and is one of Michel Foucault’s most famous works.