Foucault, Freedom and Sovereignty

by Sergei Prozorov

Overview

Against the prevailing interpretations which disqualify a Foucauldian approach from the discourse of freedom, this study offers a novel concept of political freedom and posits freedom as the primary axiological motif of Foucault's writing. Based on a new interpretation of the relation of Foucault's approach to the problematic of sovereignty, Sergei Prozorov both reconstructs ontology of freedom in Foucault's textual corpus and outlines the modalities of its practice in the contemporary terrain of global governance. The book critically engages with the acclaimed post-Foucauldian theories of Giorgio Agamben and Antonio Negri, thereby restoring the controversial notion of the sovereign subject to the critical discourse on global politics. As a study in political thought, this book will be suitable for students and scholars interested in the problematic of political freedom, philosophy and global governance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780754649083
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	02/28/2007
Pages:	180
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Sergei Prozorov is Professor of International Relations in the Department of International Relations, Faculty of Politics and Social Sciences, Petrozavodsk State University, Russia.

Table of Contents

Preface; Introduction: Thinking Freedom Freely; Part 1 Being Beside Itself: An Austere Ontology of Freedom; Chapter 1 Unhappy Positivism: Is There a Foucauldian Freedom?; Chapter 2 Transcendence within Immanence: Foucault’s Metaphysics of Absence; Chapter 3 Beyond Identity: The Meto-homonymy of Potential Being; Chapter 3a Interlude: ‘To Be Out of the Camps’: Michael K and The Power of Pure Refusal; Part 2 Ecstatic Exodus: The Return of the Sovereign Subject; Chapter 4 Ontological Extremism: Foucault, Schmitt and Sovereign Freedom; Chapter 5 Beyond theCounterproductivity: How to Empty Out the Enemy’s Power; conclusion Conclusion: Why Want Freedom?;

Editorial Reviews

'Sergei Prozorov's engagement with Foucault is an intellectual tour de force! In developing a Foucauldian ontology of freedom that disrupts the reduction of freedom to an attribute of political order and provides an affirmation of freedom as a concrete human experience, Prozorov has provided an invaluable book for scholars and students...which reinstates the need to reflect anew on freedom.' Louiza Odysseos, University of Sussex, UK '...this thought-provoking and well-written book will surely prompt Foucaldian and non-Foucaudian scholars alike to re-examine - and perhaps reassess - their deepest assumptions about the questions of human freedom and identity.' Foucault Studies 'This is a novel use of Foucault, a novel way to bring him to law...we can read here the beginnings of a more robust theorization of law itself in Hammer's text...' The Leiden Journal of International Law

From the Publisher