Michel Foucault, the State and the Social Sciences - (Political Philosophy and Public Purpose) by Arnault Skornicki (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

This book proposes an original reading of Foucault's theory of the state in relation to the social sciences. In this text, Skornicki deconstructs the pseudo-obviousness in Foucauldian thought, namely that Michel Foucault's new approach in political philosophy rejects the importance of the State institution for an analysis of power relations to focus instead on the micro-relationships "coming from below" and forming a multiform and heterogeneous political field. He argues that the State is not the institutional framework from which to think about power, but is a reality with multiple political effects whose genetic history and genealogical importance must be accounted for in any critical analysis of contemporary forms of power. The author thus traces, through a history of the modern State that passes through Foucault (but is not reduced to him), paths of reflection that are crucial for our current political situation. He suggests that a fundamental contribution of Foucault's genealogical philosophy to the social sciences is the possibility of an anti-substantialist, yet positive and productive thinking of power and the State. The State is the product of a complex interweaving of phenomena, processes, theories and practices whose history must always be re-thought - and towards which many different forms of struggles are always possible and urgent to be initiated.

From the Back Cover

This book proposes an original reading of Foucault's political thought. Far from setting aside the question of the State in order to focus on the relationships of power "from below", the Foucauldian approach offers a radical anti-substantialist theory of the State. Concepts such as biopolitics, discipline, pastoral power, and governmentality serve as tools for understanding the statization of power relations. Contrary to some of Foucault's own statements, Skornicki highlights the elective affinities between genealogy and sociology, which enable an in-depth dialogue with Marxism, Max Weber, Norbert Elias, Edward P. Thompson, among others. Unexpectedly, the analytics of power appears thereby as a corrosive and productive science of the State. The author meticulously reconstructs, drawing on Foucault's extensive body of work, how his famous 'microphysics of power' fits into a broader genealogy of the modern State--namely, the processes of political monopolization that have shaped the so-called Leviathan from the Middle Ages to the present. The State thus emerges not as the coldest of all cold monsters, nor simply as a vast apparatus of repression, but rather as both the product and the agent of multiple governmentalities, diverse rationalities, and various religious tendencies--ranging from the modern rule of law to totalitarianism and neoliberal bureaucracy. This is not just a new book about Foucault. It is a book about the State and the enduring possibility of theorizing it--immersed once more in the caustic waters of genealogy.

Arnault Skornicki is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Paris Nanterre, France. He is the author of L'économiste, la cour et la patrie: L'économie politique dans la France des Lumières (2011) and La nouvelle Histoire des idées politiques (with Jérôme Tournadre, 2024).

About the Author

Arnault Skornicki is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Paris Nanterre, France. He is the author of L'économiste, la cour et la patrie: L'économie politique dans la France des Lumières (2011) and La nouvelle Histoire des idées politiques (with Jérôme Tournadre, 2024).