One Paradigm, Two Potentialities: Freedom, Sovereignty and Foucault in Agamben’s Reading of Aristotle’s ‘δύναμις’ (dynamis)

Abstract

This piece considers especially the concept of potentiality in Agamben, and how it is indebted to and present in Foucault’s thought. It draws on Aristotle to highlight important aspects of potentiality and to consider Agamben’s interpretation of it. The paper thus indicates some of the important ontological and methodological aspects of the relations between Foucault and Agamben.