Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought

Rating:
Summary: Building on Foucault
Review: Michel Foucault admitted in an interview that his writings were works of fiction, yet had a certain truth about them. Nikolas Rose's 'Powers of Freedom' is far less of a fiction that anything of Foucault's, but it is similarly a search for truth. I much prefer to read Foucault, though if you are a Foucault fan you won't be disappointed with Rose. He indeed builds on Foucault's ideas. And where Foucauld tends towards nihilism and depression, Rose keeps up a spirit of optimism and hope. Both advise using thought as a weapon in the never-ending battle against those who purport to rule us in our own name and for our own good.

There are many interesting ideas in 'Powers of Freedom'. I suppose the main one is that freedom is an invention of modern government. Before the modern age there was no such thing as freedom - one lived in fear of violence and intimidation from above and below. Only with the advent of the modern age with its mores of civility and self-control has sovereign power felt able to let its subjects reasonably alone.

Another idea, according to Rose, is that individuality is both an invention and a subjectivity. He develops Foucault's notion of a personal ethics and argues that our current 'wars of subjectivity' emerge around the concept that 'individuals can shape an autonomous identity through choices in taste, music, goods, styles and habitus outside the control of coherent discourses of civility or the technologies of political government. The politics of conduct is faced with a new set of problems: governing subject formation in this new plural field.' (page 179).

Rating:
Summary: Building on Foucault
Review: Michel Foucault admitted in an interview that his writings were works of fiction, yet had a certain truth about them. Nikolas Rose's `Powers of Freedom' is far less of a fiction that anything of Foucault's, but it is similarly a search for truth. I much prefer to read Foucault, though if you are a Foucault fan you won't be disappointed with Rose. He indeed builds on Foucault's ideas. And where Foucauld tends towards nihilism and depression, Rose keeps up a spirit of optimism and hope. Both advise using thought as a weapon in the never-ending battle against those who purport to rule us in our own name and for our own good.

There are many interesting ideas in `Powers of Freedom'. I suppose the main one is that freedom is an invention of modern government. Before the modern age there was no such thing as freedom - one lived in fear of violence and intimidation from above and below. Only with the advent of the modern age with its mores of civility and self-control has sovereign power felt able to let its subjects reasonably alone.

Another idea, according to Rose, is that individuality is both an invention and a subjectivity. He develops Foucault's notion of a personal ethics and argues that our current `wars of subjectivity' emerge around the concept that `individuals can shape an autonomous identity through choices in taste, music, goods, styles and habitus outside the control of coherent discourses of civility or the technologies of political government. The politics of conduct is faced with a new set of problems: governing subject formation in this new plural field.' (page 179).