Repository | Book | Chapter
10 january 1979
pp. 1-25
Abstract
[YOU KNOW] FREUD'S QUOTATION: "Acheronta movebo."1 Well, I would like to take the theme for this year's lectures from another, less well-known quotation from someone who, generally speaking at least, is also less well-known, the English Statesman Walpole,2 who, with reference to his way of governing, said: "Quieta non movere,"3 "Let sleeping dogs lie." ∼ In a sense, this is the opposite of Freud. In fact, this year I would like to continue with what I began to talk about last year, that is to say, to retrace the history of what could be called the art of government. You recall the strict sense in which I understood "art of government," since in using the word "to govern" I left out the thousand and one different modalities and possible ways that exist for guiding men, directing their conduct, constraining their actions and reactions, and so on. Thus I left to one side all that is usually understood, and that for a long time was understood, as the government of children, of families, of a household, of souls, of communities, and so forth. I only considered, and again this year will only consider the government of men insofar as it appears as the exercise of political sovereignty.
Publication details
Published in:
Senellart Michel, Ewald François, Fontana Alessandro (2008) The birth of biopolitics: lectures at the collège de morality, 1978–1979. Dordrecht, Springer.
Pages: 1-25
Full citation:
Senellart Michel, Ewald François, Fontana Alessandro (2008) „10 january 1979“, In: M. Senellart, F. Ewald & A. Fontana (eds.), The birth of biopolitics, Dordrecht, Springer, 1–25.