本书探讨伦理学中的几个论题。读过几本书的人知道，天下的道理差不多早都被前人讲过。其中有些，我有自己的体会、思考，尝试用当代中国普通读者比较易懂的方式把这些道理重新讲述；有些，前人好像讲得不太对不太好，我尝试讲得更好些。也许没做到——我一直对自己期望不高，更希望的倒是有几个读者能与作者一样，感到诚实的思考实是人生一大乐事。
“我该怎样生活”这个问题不只是人生道路之初的问题，而是贯穿人的一生的问题。这个问题，主要不是选择人生道路的问题，不是选对或选错人生道路的问题，而是行路的问题——知道自己在走什么路，知道这条路该怎么走：我们是否贴切着自己的真实天性行路。
在最初“选择人生道路”的时候，没谁一开始通透了解自己的本性，了解周边环境并预见环境的变化。我们一开始不可能通透了解自己的本性，这不在于我们还不够聪明，而在于我们的本性在一开始不够具体，本性有待在盘根错节的实践中向我们逐渐清晰地显现。我们大概可以在这个意义上去理解歌德说他的浮士德是一系列越来越纯粹或纯洁（rein）的努力。我把这个“纯粹”或“纯洁”理解为：自身通透。我以为，这种自身通透是phronesis最核心的含义——洞明自己行在何处，浑然一体地洞明自己和自己所行之路，从而能贴切着自己的真实天性行路，把自己大致保持在天性所指的道路上。

Madness & Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, by Michel Foucault, is an examination of the ideas, practices, institutions, art & literature relating to madness in Western history. It's an abridged English edition of Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique, originally published in 1961 as Folie et déraison. Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique. A full translation, The History of Madness, was published by Routledge in 6/2006. This was his 1st major book, written while Director of the Maison de France in Sweden.
This history begins in the Middle Ages, noting the social & physical exclusion of lepers. It argues that with the gradual disappearance of leprosy, madness came to occupy this excluded position. The ship of fools in the 15th century is a literary version of one such exclusionary practice, the practice of sending mad people away in boats. However, during the Renaissance, madness was regarded as a common phenomenon because humans couldn't attain Divine Reason. As Cervantes' Don Quixote, all humans are weak to desires & dissimulation. Therefore, the insane, understood as those who had come too close to God's Reason, were accepted in the middle of society. It isn't before the 17th century, in a movement famously called the Great Confinement, that unreasonable people systematically were institutionalized. In the 18th century, the mad came to be seen as having lost what made them human & become animalistic & treated as such. It isn't before 19th century that madness was regarded as an illness to be cured.
Foucault wasn't talking about medical institutions designed specifically for the insane but about the creation of houses of confinement for social outsiders, including not only the insane but also vagrants, the poor & orphans, & what effect those houses of confinement had on the insane & perceptions of madness in the West. He demonstrates that while confinement of social outcastes was a generally European phenomenon, it had a unique development in France & distinct developments in other countries such as Germany & England.
Foucault also argues that madness during the Renaissance had the power to signify the limits of social order & to point to a deeper truth. This was silenced by Enlightened Reason. He also examines the rise of modern scientific & humanitarian treatment of the insane, notably at the hands of Philippe Pinel & Samuel Tuke. He claims these modern treatments were no less controlling than previous methods. Tuke's country retreat for the mad consisted of punishing them until they gave up their commitment to madness. Similarly, Pinel's treatment of the mad amounted to an extended aversion therapy, including such treatments as cold showers & straitjackets. This treatment amounted to repeated brutality until the pattern of judgment & punishment was internalized by the patient.