What is Power?

Byung-Chul Han is a Korean-born Professor of Philosophy and Cultural Studies who teaches at the University of the Arts (UdK) in Berlin. He is the author of more than 20 books including The Transparency Society and The Burnout Society.

• Preface vii1. The Logic of Power 12. The Semantics of Power 223. The Metaphysics of Power 414. The Politics of Power 615. The Ethics of Power 80Notes 98Bibliography 123

"On an itinerary driven by unusual intellectual independence and perfect argumentative transparency, Byung-Chul Han may have reached the level of true philosophical mastership. Based on a circumspect discussion of the positions marked by some classical thinkers of modernity, What is Power? develops a new vision of the asymmetries produced by human interaction and thus lives up to the promise to 'deprive power of that power it has on account of the fact that we do not fully understand what it actually is.'"—Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Stanford University"The new star of German philosophy."—El País"It's no exaggeration to say that Han is one of the most relevant philosophers of our age, able to make diagnoses when other philosophers, particularly knee-jerk Foucauldian social critics in America, have trouble even seeing an illness. What is Power? is an important document of a philosopher still developing, still growing, though it's nevertheless interesting in its own right. Han's flops are better than most other philosophers' greatest hits."—The American Conservative