CONSTRUCTING FOUCAULT'S ETHICS. A Poststructuralist Moral Theory for the Twenty-First Century

Olssen, Mark

ISBN 10: 1526156601 / ISBN 13: 9781526156600

Published by Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2021

1st edition, 2021. A Fine copy. 8vo., 348 pp., bound in publishers illustrated paper covered boards. Text appears unmarked. Seller Inventory # 38069

Synopsis:

In popularising the term ‘speaking truth to power’, Michel Foucault established the basis upon which a new ethics can be constructed. This is the thesis that Mark Olssen advances in Constructing Foucault’s ethics. Olssen not only ‘speaks truth’ to existing moral and ethical theories that have dominated western philosophy since Plato, but also shows how an alternative ethical and moral theory can be established that avoids the pitfalls of postmodern relativism while grounding ethical, moral and political discourse for the present age.
Taking the late ‘ethical turn’ in the philosopher’s thought as its starting point, this ambitious study seeks to construct an ethics beyond anything Foucault ever attempted while remaining consistent with his core postulates. It advances the concept of ‘life continuance’, which expresses a normative orientation to the future in terms of the quest for survival and well-being, giving rise to irreducible normative values as part of the discursive order of events. This approach is explored in contrast with a range of other, established systems, from the Kantian to the Marxist, contract ethics and utilitarianism.

-- .

About the Author: Mark Olssen is Emeritus Professor of Political Theory and Higher Education Policy in the Department of Politics at the University of Surrey -- .

Bibliographic Details

Title: CONSTRUCTING FOUCAULT'S ETHICS. A ...
Publisher: Manchester University Press, Manchester
Publication Date: 2021
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Fine
Signed: ch lib 5/26
Edition: 1st edition.