
Critiquing Sovereign Violence
Law, Biopolitics, Bio-Juridicalism
Gavin Rae(Author)
Edinburgh University Press
Published on 31. May 2019
Book
Hardback
216 pages
978-1-4744-4528-3 (ISBN)
Description
Gavin Rae offers an original approach to sovereign violence by looking at a wide range of thinkers, which he organises into three models. Benjamin, Schmitt, Arendt, Deleuze and Guattari form the radical-juridical perspective; Foucault and Agamben the biopolitical; Derrida the bio-juridical - which Rae argues produces the most nuanced account. Rae engages with new translations of 'The Beast and the Sovereign' and 'The Death Penalty' to show that Derrida offers a radical and alternative angle in which violence is placed between law and life, simultaneously creating and regulating each through the other.
Reviews / Votes
Gavin Rae here offers a welcome addition to the philosophical literature on a topic - sovereignty and its relation to violence - that is at the cutting edge of contemporary scholarship in a variety of fields. After carefully articulating several 20th century theorists' challenges to a law-based model of sovereignty, Rae argues that Derrida's 'bio-juridical' approach offers an innovative perspective that avoids the problems that he diagnoses in Benjamin, Schmitt, Arendt, Agamben and other theorists. * Alan D. Schrift, Grinnell College *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
499 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4744-4528-3 (9781474445283)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
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E-Book
04/2019
1st Edition
Edinburgh University Press
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E-Book
04/2019
1st Edition
Edinburgh University Press
€0.00
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Person
Gavin Rae is Professor in the Department of Logic and Theoretical Philosophy at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. His research interests lie in nineteenth and twentieth century European philosophy, where he works at the intersection of socio-political philosophy, psychoanalytic theory, ontology, and ethics. Besides over sixty published articles and book chapters, he is the author of eight monographs, the most recent of which are The Politics of Reason: A Postfoundational Approach (Edinburgh University Press, 2026), Questioning Sexuality: From Psychoanalysis to Gender Theory and Beyond (Edinburgh University Press, 2024), and Poststructuralist Agency: The Subject in Twentieth Century Theory (Edinburgh University Press, 2020). He has also co-edited six volumes, the most recent of which are Subjective Agency and Poststructuralism (Routledge, 2025-with Cillian O Fathaigh), Philosophy across Borders (Routledge, 2025-with Emma Ingala), and Historical Traces and Future Pathways of Poststructuralism: Aesthetics, Ethics, Politics (Routledge, 2021-with Emma Ingala).
Content
Preface
Introduction: The Classic-Juridical Model
Part I: The Radical-Juridical Critique
1. Critiquing Violence: Walter Benjamin on Law and the Divine
2. Divinity within the Law: Carl Schmitt on the Violence of Sovereignty
3. Violence and Power: Arendt on the Logic of Totalitarianism
4. Disrupting Sovereignty: Deleuze and Guattari on the War Machine
Part II: The Biopolitical Critique
5. From Law to Life: Foucault, Sovereignty, and Biopolitical Racism
6. Agamben on Sovereignty, Biopolitics, and Civil War
Part III: The Bio-Juridical Critique
7. Life and Law: Derrida on the Bio-Juridicalism of Sovereign Violence
Conclusion
Bibliography; Index
Introduction: The Classic-Juridical Model
Part I: The Radical-Juridical Critique
1. Critiquing Violence: Walter Benjamin on Law and the Divine
2. Divinity within the Law: Carl Schmitt on the Violence of Sovereignty
3. Violence and Power: Arendt on the Logic of Totalitarianism
4. Disrupting Sovereignty: Deleuze and Guattari on the War Machine
Part II: The Biopolitical Critique
5. From Law to Life: Foucault, Sovereignty, and Biopolitical Racism
6. Agamben on Sovereignty, Biopolitics, and Civil War
Part III: The Bio-Juridical Critique
7. Life and Law: Derrida on the Bio-Juridicalism of Sovereign Violence
Conclusion
Bibliography; Index