Living Ethically, Acting PoliticallyCornell University Press, 1997 - 227 pages "When social power is conceived in Foucauldian terms, it is notoriously difficult to grapple with what it means to think affirmatively about ethical-political action. Drawing upon the unlikely combination of Hannah Arendt and the early 17th-century Quaker movement, Orlie articulates a fascinating approach to this problem. Without forgetting for a moment our enmeshment in power, she nevertheless shows how better appreciating our spiritual capacity for 'natality' can engender a distinctive sense of responsibility and freedom." Stephen K. White, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University"A thoughtful and erudite meditation on our ethical and political possibilities in the time after Truth." Wendy Brown, University of California, Santa Cruz"Living Ethically, Acting Politically confronts our ordinary complicities in the operations of social power with the possibility of doing otherwise. Refusing the legislative imaginary of sovereignty, Melissa A. Orlie draws innovatively on Arendt, Foucault, and early modern Quakers to rescue the 'can' from the jaws of the 'ought' not to escape obligations but to recollect their generation in the contingencies and equivocalities of social practices. At once evocative and provoking, this work opens new terrain at the borderlines of politics and ethics." Kirstie M. McClure, author of Judging Rights: Lockean Politics and the Limits of Consent" |
Contents
The Contemporary Imagination of Power II | 11 |
SubjectCitizens and Corporeal Souls | 35 |
Recovering Political Enthusiasm for Invisible Powers | 61 |
A Genealogy of the Modern SubjectCitizen | 89 |
Hobbess America | 113 |
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Common terms and phrases
affirm appear Arendt and Foucault Arendt says become bodies/minds body politic chapter claim collaborative conceive conception conscience contemporary contest corporeal imagination corporeal souls CSPF Discipline and Punish discourse early Quakers effects Eichmann enacted entheos ethical political exercise of power fiction forgiving promises governing powers Hannah Arendt headless Hobbes Hobbes's Hobbes's political human imagination of power incorporeal individual and collective invisible powers judgment Lefort Leviathan limits live ethically matter means Medea Michel Foucault modern monotheos Morgan mutual promise necessities norms ontology ordered evil ordinary evil ourselves perspective plurality political action political bodies political constitution political theory political thinking popular authorization popular sovereignty powers and knowledges principle problem of evil produce question reading recognize relations religious enthusiasts represent resentment responsibility Scripture seeks sensus communis silent social rule society sovereign spirit subject-citizens theodicy Thomas Hobbes thoughtless tion transfiguration trespasses truth U.S. Constitution University Press visible Wolin