State of Sovereignty

Peter Gratton is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the coeditor (with John Panteleimon Manoussakis) of Traversing the Imaginary: Richard Kearney and the Postmodern Challenge.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionThe Vase of Soissons and the Lessons of SovereigntyThe Noble Thesis and the Ends of Pagan SovereigntyWhere Sovereignty Lies Today1. Rousseau and the Right of Life and Death over the Body PoliticThe State of Sovereignty after the Social ContractContracting the SovereignLessons from "L’artifice et le jeu" of SovereigntyMen and Citizens, Life and DeathThe Sovereign Pardon2. Arendt’s Archaeology of SovereigntyThe Fragmented Past and The Future of the PoliticalBeginning Again: The Archē of the PoliticalFinding a Home in the Political3. "The World is at Stake": Sovereignty and the Right to Have RightsSovereign TotalitarianismThe Rise of the Nation-StatePolicing the State4. Torturing Sovereignty: Foucault’s Regicide in TheoryGenealogies in the MultipleSovereign MadnessHistories of the State of SovereigntyThe Rise of the Nation-StateBio-political SovereigntyFoucault, Schmitt, and "the King Who Rules but Does not Govern"Beyond the Sovereign DecisionSovereign Freedom, or Freedom from Sovereignty5. What More Is There to Say? Agamben and the Hyperbole of SovereigntyThe Sacrifice of HistoryHomo Sacer: The Significance of WordsFrom Homo Sacer to Vir SacerThe Glory of Another SovereigntySovereign RelationsLast Words: The Language of Sovereignty and Noo-PoliticsThe Hyperbole that Remains6. Derrida and the Limits of Sovereignty’s Reason: Freedom, Equality, but Not FraternityLe Tres Haut of Mount MoriahFreedom, Equality, but Not FraternityConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

"Gratton's methodological rigour in reconstructing each pathway is a great strength of the book … This is a very pedagogical book, full of lessons in the way it treats each of the authors under discussion. It is therefore a good graduate student text, and for each discussed author the book makes significant contributions to current scholarship." — Philosophy in Review"Drawing on eminent thinkers including Boulainvilliers, Rousseau, Arendt, Foucault, Agamben, and Derrida, Gratton … provides a novel synthesis. He concludes that for those who believe in freedom and democracy, questioning rather than resigning to sovereignty as it presents itself is essential. The book reflects some of Gratton's earlier published work and further attests to his facility with French political thought … Gratton's discussion overall is penetrable and stimulating." — CHOICE