Foucault Studies, Number 10: November 2010: Foucault and Agamben

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

David Bleeden

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.