Michel Foucault and the Politics of Freedom

by Thomas L. Dumm Amherst College, author o

Overview

What is freedom? In this study, Thomas Dumm challenges the conventions that have governed discussions and debates concerning modern freedom by bringing the work of Michel Foucault into dialogue with contemporary liberal thought. While Foucault has been widely understood to have characterized the modern era as being opposed to the realization of freedom, Dumm shows how this characterization conflates FoucaultOs genealogy of discipline with his overall view of the practices of being free. Dumm demonstrates how FoucaultOs critical genealogy does not shrink from understanding the ways in which modern subjects are constrained and shaped by forces greater than themselves, but how it instead works through these constraints to provide, not simply a vision of liberation, but a joyous wisdom concerned with showing us, in his words, that we Oare much freer than we feel.O Both as an introduction to Foucault and as an intervention in liberal theory, Michel Foucault and the Politics of Freedom is bound to change how we think about the limits and possibilities of freedom in late modernity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781461609186
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/03/2002
Series:	Modernity and Political Thought
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	200
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Thomas L. Dumm is professor in the Political Science Department at Amherst College, where he teaches courses in American politics and contemporary political thought.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 The Politics of Freedom
Chapter 2 Freedom and Space
Chapter 3 Freedom and Disciplinary Society
Chapter 4 Freedom and Seduction

Editorial Reviews

This edition of a 1995 book (Sage Publications) contains a new introduction by the series editor and a new preface. Readers familiar with Foucault's work will appreciate the difficulty in critically studying its arresting paradoxical nature. Dumm (political science, Amherst College) negotiates the problem by creating a thematic framework<-->the idea of being "free" in a modern Western capitalist democracy<-->and examining it through a Foucaultian lens. He focuses on the politics of freedom, negative freedom, the disciplinary society, ethics, seduction, governments, and provides an enlightening companion to Foucault's postmodern philosophy. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Among the hundreds of books and articles on Foucault, only a handful make for genuinely rewarding reading. Thomas L. Dumm's Michel Foucault and the Politics of Freedom is a welcome addition to that handful, for it treats Foucault with the subtlety his thought deserves and demands, but almost never receives. As Dumm shows, appreciating Foucault's accomplishments as a political theorist requires sustained attention to the difficult balancing act to which he devoted himself: on the one hand, Foucault's analyses, cool and impassioned at once, of the macabre inventiveness of power in our era; on the other, his likewise passionate and realistic imagination and appraisal of the resources our era offers for freedom, emancipation, liberation. Most interpretations of Foucault suffer from emphasizing one of these twinned concerns at the expense of the other; Dumm, by masterfully giving each its due, takes the measure of Foucault's original, provocative, unforgettable understanding of power and freedom.. .. This is a book that will enlighten those coming to Foucault for the first time, and provoke many who think they know his work well to read it again.

Frederick M. Dolan

Dumm succeeds in showing the extent to which freedom for Foucault is always situated and situational, constrained by social relations and involving the mediations of external forces. Dumm's study will make an ideal introduction for anyone new to Foucault. It has been deftly constructed, it is written with care, precision, and passion, and it succeeds in enabling the reader to enbark upon a radical self-questioning concerning the notion of freedom.

Political Theory - Keith Ansell-Pearson

Dumm succeeds in showing the extent to which freedom for Foucault is always situated and situational, constrained by social relations and involving the mediations of external forces. Dumm's study will make an ideal introduction for anyone new to Foucault. It has been deftly constructed, it is written with care, precision, and passion, and it succeeds in enabling the reader to enbark upon a radical self-questioning concerning the notion of freedom.
— Keith Ansell-Pearson

Political Theory

Among the hundreds of books and articles on Foucault, only a handful make for genuinely rewarding reading. Thomas L. Dumm's Michel Foucault and the Politics of Freedom is a welcome addition to that handful, for it treats Foucault with the subtlety his thought deserves and demands, but almost never receives. As Dumm shows, appreciating Foucault's accomplishments as a political theorist requires sustained attention to the difficult balancing act to which he devoted himself: on the one hand, Foucault's analyses, cool and impassioned at once, of the macabre inventiveness of power in our era; on the other, his likewise passionate and realistic imagination and appraisal of the resources our era offers for freedom, emancipation, liberation. Most interpretations of Foucault suffer from emphasizing one of these twinned concerns at the expense of the other; Dumm, by masterfully giving each its due, takes the measure of Foucault's original, provocative, unforgettable understanding of power and freedom. . . . This is a book that will enlighten those coming to Foucault for the first time, and provoke many who think they know his work well to read it again.--Frederick M. Dolan, University of California, Berkeley

Dumm succeeds in showing the extent to which freedom for Foucault is always situated and situational, constrained by social relations and involving the mediations of external forces. Dumm's study will make an ideal introduction for anyone new to Foucault. It has been deftly constructed, it is written with care, precision, and passion, and it succeeds in enabling the reader to enbark upon a radical self-questioning concerning the notion of freedom.--Keith Ansell-Pearson, professor of philosophy and director of graduate research, University of Warwick, England "Political Theory "

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