Power and Freedom in the Space of Reasons

Elaborating Foucault’s Pragmatism

Tuomo Tiisala (University of Vienna, Austria)

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English

Routledge
31 July 2024

Philosophy of language; Philosophy; Ethics & moral philosophy; History of ideas; Political science & theory

Series: Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Philosophy

This book argues that the received view of the distinction between freedom and power must be rejected because it rests on an untenable account of the discursive cognition that endows individuals with the capacity for autonomy and self-governed rationality.

In liberal and Kantian approaches alike, the autonomous subject is a self-standing starting point whose freedom is constrained by relations of power only contingently because they are external to the subject’s constitution. Thus, the received view defines the distinction between freedom and power as a dichotomy. Michel Foucault is arguably the most important critic of that dichotomy. However, it is widely agreed that Foucault falls short of justifying the alternative view he develops, where power and freedom are essentially entangled instead. The book fills out the gap by investigating the social preconditions of discursive cognition. Drawing on pragmatist-inferentialist resources from the philosophy of language (Wittgenstein, Sellars, and Brandom), it presents a new interpretation of Foucault’s philosophy that is unified by his overlooked idea of “the archaeology of knowledge.” As a result, the book not only explains why and how power and freedom must be entangled but also what it means ethically to pursue and gain autonomy with respect to one’s own understanding.

Power and Freedom in the Space of Reasons will appeal to scholars and advanced students working in social and political philosophy, critical theory, ethics, philosophy of language, and the history of 20th-century philosophy.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) 4.0 license.

Any third party material in this book is not included in the OA Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. Please direct any permissions enquiries to the original rightsholder.

This research was funded in whole or in part by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [10.55776/COE3]. For open access purposes, the author has applied a CC BY-NC public copyright license to any author-accepted manuscript version arising from this submission.

Published with the support of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF): 10.55776/PUB1157

By: Tuomo Tiisala (University of Vienna Austria)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 430g
ISBN: 9781032671376
ISBN 10: 1032671378
Series: Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Philosophy
Pages: 140
Publication Date: 31 July 2024
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Tuomo Tiisala is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Vienna, Austria. He has taught at the University of Helsinki, New York University Abu Dhabi, and New York University, where he was a Bersoff Faculty Fellow after earning his PhD from the University of Chicago.

Reviews for Power and Freedom in the Space of Reasons: Elaborating Foucault’s Pragmatism

""Power and Freedom in the Space of Reasons transforms our understanding of Foucault and opens up a wholly new perspective on the features of modernity he made visible. Tiisala boldly and deftly develops an account of the master idea that unifies Foucault’s thought, both developmentally and thematically. The leitmotif the author discerns brings Foucault’s multifarious writings into contact and conversation with the Sellarsian neopragmatist strand of contemporary Anglophone philosophy of language, freshly illuminating both currents of thought."" Robert B. Brandom, University of Pittsburgh, USA ""Tiisala’s book is a brilliant, timely contribution to a renewed understanding of Michel Foucault’s philosophical and critical project. By emphasizing the enduring relevance of the archaeology of knowledge for Foucault’s problematization of the relationships between power and freedom, it compellingly reveals a pragmatist dimension in his thought. It thus masterfully shows the—still underappreciated—importance of Foucault’s work for current debates in social and political philosophy, ethics, and the philosophy of language."" Daniele Lorenzini, University of Pennsylvania, USA