The Use of Pleasure, Volume 2 of Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality, investigates how free male citizens in classical Greek culture problematized sexual conduct and fashioned themselves as ethical subjects. Rather than treating sexuality as a timeless natural domain repressed by social norms, Foucault analyzes ancient ‘arts of existence’—practices through which individuals related to their desires, bodies, and pleasures. Centered on philosophical, medical, and didactic texts from the 4th century BCE, he examines four main axes of experience—desire, the body, the conjugal relation, and boys—showing how they were regulated through self-mastery, moderation, and status-bound codes of honor. The book redefines ethics not as obedience to universal law but as a historically specific style of subjectivation: a way of binding oneself to rules and cultivating a particular relationship to oneself.
At a Glance
- Author
- Michel Foucault
- Composed
- 1976–1983
- Language
- French
- Status
- original survives
- •Sexuality is not a natural given but a historically constituted ‘problem field’: Foucault argues that what we call ‘sexuality’ is an historically variable way of problematizing pleasures and desires, so the central question is how different cultures made sex into an object of moral reflection, not whether they repressed a pre-given sexual nature.
- •Ancient Greek ethics of pleasure center on self-mastery rather than prohibition: In classical Greece, the moral issue is not whether one should renounce pleasure, but how a free, adult male can use pleasures in a measured, controlled way compatible with his status, freedom, and virility—an ethics of enkrateia (self-control) rather than ascetic denial.
- •Ethics is a form of subjectivation, not merely a system of rules: Foucault redefines ethics as the set of practices through which a person constitutes herself as the subject of her conduct, emphasizing ‘care of the self’ (epimeleia heautou), aesthetic self-stylization, and techniques of self-examination over obedience to external commandments.
- •The classical Greek ‘aphrodisia’ system is organized along four strategic axes: Foucault shows that ancient sexual morality is structured around (1) the intensity and management of desire, (2) the dietetic and medical regulation of the body, (3) the norms of the conjugal relationship and the status of the wife, and (4) relations with boys (pederasty), each with distinct rules and rationalities.
- •Modern Western sexual ethics are not continuous with ancient models: By contrasting Greek ethical practices of pleasure with later Christian and modern regimes of sexuality, Foucault argues against the narrative of a simple progression from repression to liberation, revealing ruptures in how subjects are invited to know themselves and govern their desires.
The Use of Pleasure has become a foundational text for late Foucault scholarship and for the study of the history of sexuality. It reshaped debates about ethics by emphasizing practices of self-formation, inspired extensive work on Greco-Roman ‘care of the self,’ and influenced feminist and queer theories that problematize identity and sexual norms as historically constituted. The book also contributed to the methodological development of genealogy and the concept of ‘problematization,’ influencing historical sociology, philosophy of the self, and critical studies of subjectivity.
1. Introduction
The Use of Pleasure (L’usage des plaisirs) is the second volume of Michel Foucault’s multi-part History of Sexuality. It investigates how, in classical Greek culture, sexual conduct became a domain of ethical concern and self-formation for free male citizens. Rather than treating sexuality as a timeless, inner identity, Foucault examines practices, discourses, and codes of conduct through which individuals related to their pleasures.
The book is often described as marking Foucault’s “ethical turn.” It reorients his earlier focus on disciplinary power toward questions of subjectivity: how people are invited to work on themselves and constitute themselves as moral agents. In this context, ancient Greek texts—philosophical, medical, and didactic—are read not as simple mirrors of social reality but as elaborations of specific “arts of existence”.
A central aim is to show that what modern societies call “sexuality” did not exist in the same way in antiquity. Instead, there was an historically specific configuration of aphrodisia (sexual acts and pleasures), regulated by norms of moderation, health, and status. By reconstructing this configuration, The Use of Pleasure contributes to a broader genealogical inquiry into the formation of the desiring subject in the West.
2. Historical Context and Project of The History of Sexuality
2.1 Place within Foucault’s Intellectual Trajectory
The Use of Pleasure belongs to Foucault’s larger project, The History of Sexuality, begun in the mid‑1970s. Volume 1, The Will to Knowledge (1976), challenged the “repressive hypothesis” and analyzed how modern power produces discourses on sex. Volumes 2 and 3, written in the early 1980s, extend this inquiry backward to Greco-Roman antiquity.
| Period | Focus in Foucault’s Work |
|---|---|
| 1960s | Knowledge, madness, medical discourse |
| Early 1970s | Discipline, prisons, institutions |
| Late 1970s–1984 | Sexuality, ethics, care of the self |
Some commentators see The Use of Pleasure as a shift from power to ethics; others emphasize continuity, arguing that it applies genealogical analysis to new materials.
2.2 Evolution of the History of Sexuality Project
Originally, Foucault envisaged a volume titled La Chair et le corps on Christian notions of the flesh. Around 1978–79 he abandoned this plan, turning instead to earlier Greek and Roman sources. In the Introduction to The Use of Pleasure, he describes this as a “modification” of the project rather than a complete rupture.
The overall enterprise, as reconstructed from published and posthumous materials, aims to trace how Western societies have constituted a “sexuality” by transforming scattered practices of pleasure into an object of knowledge, moral regulation, and self-scrutiny. Within this framework, The Use of Pleasure focuses on classical Greece as one distinctive configuration in that longer genealogy.
3. Author, Composition, and Publication
3.1 Foucault as Author
Michel Foucault (1926–1984) was a French philosopher and historian known for studies of madness, medicine, punishment, and sexuality. By the time he wrote The Use of Pleasure, he was an established public intellectual, teaching at the Collège de France and engaging in political activism. Scholars often regard this period as his “late” phase, characterized by an intensified interest in ethics and ancient philosophy.
3.2 Composition History
Foucault worked on The Use of Pleasure between roughly 1976 and 1983. During this period he undertook extensive research into Greek texts—especially Plato, Xenophon, medical writers, and moralists—while simultaneously developing his lectures on the care of the self. Draft materials and lecture courses suggest that the focus on ancient sexual ethics emerged gradually as he reconsidered an earlier plan centered on Christianity.
3.3 Publication and Editions
The book appeared in French in June 1984 as Histoire de la sexualité, II: L’usage des plaisirs with Gallimard. It is dedicated to Daniel Defert. The standard critical reference today is the Pléiade edition of Foucault’s Œuvres, edited by Frédéric Gros. In English, Robert Hurley’s translation, The History of Sexuality, Volume 2: The Use of Pleasure (Pantheon 1985; Vintage 1990), has become the standard academic edition.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Original language | French |
| First publication | 1984 (Gallimard) |
| Standard French edition | Œuvres, ed. Frédéric Gros (Gallimard, “Bibliothèque de la Pléiade”) |
| Standard English translation | Robert Hurley (Pantheon/Vintage) |
4. Structure and Organization of The Use of Pleasure
4.1 Overall Architecture
The volume is organized into an Introduction followed by four main parts and a concluding transition to Volume 3. Each part analyzes a distinct dimension of the ancient ethics of aphrodisia.
| Section | Title | Primary Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction | “Modifications” | Reorientation of the project; method of problematization |
| Part I | “The Moral Problem of Pleasures” | Emergence of pleasures as a moral field in classical Greece |
| Part II | “The Use of Pleasure” | Detailed analysis of self-mastery, modes of ethical subjectivation |
| Part III | “The Flesh and the Body” | Corporeal regulation and contrast with later Christian “flesh” |
| Part IV | “Women, Wives, and Boys” | Differentiated codes for wives and boys |
| Conclusion | (Transition) | Link to The Care of the Self |
4.2 Internal Organization and Sources
Within each part, chapters are grouped around thematic “axes” (desire, body, conjugal relationship, boys). Foucault systematically juxtaposes:
| Material Type | Examples Used |
|---|---|
| Philosophical texts | Plato, Xenophon |
| Medical/dietetic writings | Hippocratic and related treatises |
| Moral and practical treatises | Household-management literature, advice texts |
These materials are treated as elements of a discursive configuration that shapes how free adult males problematize sexual conduct, rather than as a simple chronological narrative. The structure thereby mirrors Foucault’s analytical grid of ethical experience, which he unfolds most explicitly in Part II.
5. Central Arguments and Key Concepts
5.1 From Sexuality to Aphrodisia
Foucault argues that classical Greece did not possess a notion of “sexuality” as an inner identity. Instead, it organized sexual conduct around aphrodisia—acts and pleasures associated with Aphrodite—evaluated according to their intensity, context, and effects on the subject’s status and health.
“What had to be morally questioned was not desire but the use one made of pleasures.”
— Michel Foucault, The Use of Pleasure (trans. Hurley)
5.2 Ethics as Subjectivation
A key claim is that ethics is best understood as a process of subjectivation: the ways individuals constitute themselves as moral subjects.
Foucault distinguishes four analytical dimensions:
| Term | Brief Definition |
|---|---|
| Ethical substance | What in the self is worked upon (e.g., desires, the body) |
| Mode of subjection | How one binds oneself to norms (law, rational choice, custom) |
| Forms of elaboration (askēsis) | Practices of self-discipline and self-formation |
| Telos | The ideal mode of being aimed at (e.g., free, virile citizen) |
In Greek ethics of pleasure, the ethical substance is primarily the use of pleasures, the mode of subjection is often rational choice and civic honor, askēsis includes practices of self‑control, and the telos is a life of balanced, virile freedom.
5.3 Self-Mastery and Freedom
Another central argument concerns enkrateia (self-mastery). Foucault maintains that for free male citizens, moral problems of sex revolve around governing pleasures rather than renouncing them. Proper use of pleasure is linked to political and domestic authority: mastery over oneself parallels mastery over household and city.
Interpretive debates center on whether Foucault’s reconstruction overemphasizes elite philosophical ideals, how fully it captures coercion and inequality, and how it relates to his earlier analyses of power. Nonetheless, these concepts—aphrodisia, subjectivation, enkrateia, and the fourfold ethical schema—are widely regarded as central contributions of the work.
6. Legacy and Historical Significance
6.1 Impact on Foucault Scholarship and Intellectual History
The Use of Pleasure has become a key text for interpreting Foucault’s late thought. Many commentators treat it as foundational for understanding his notions of care of the self, ethics as practice, and aesthetics of existence. Others emphasize its continuity with earlier analyses of power, seeing it as extending genealogy into the ethical domain.
In intellectual history, the book contributed to a reconceptualization of sexuality as a historically contingent problem field rather than a natural constant. It also helped stimulate renewed interest in ancient ethics, particularly Greek notions of self-mastery and civic virtue.
6.2 Influence on Fields and Debates
The work has influenced several areas:
| Field | Aspects Influenced |
|---|---|
| Classics & ancient history | Studies of Greek sexuality, pederasty, household, and gender norms |
| Gender & queer studies | Genealogical approaches to sexual identities and critique of essentialism |
| Moral & political philosophy | Non-rule-based conceptions of ethics and practices of self-formation |
| Social theory | Methodological debates on genealogy, discourse, and subjectivity |
6.3 Critical Reassessments
Scholars have raised significant criticisms, including its focus on elite male perspectives, limited attention to women and non-citizens, and possible underestimation of coercion and violence in ancient sexual relations. Others question how, or whether, Foucault’s descriptive genealogy can inform contemporary normative projects.
Despite divergent assessments, The Use of Pleasure is widely regarded as a landmark in the historical study of sexuality and in late‑20th‑century reflections on ethics and the self.
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urldate = {December 11, 2025}
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