Techniques of Finitude: On the Pastoral Matrix of Economic Care

Building and expanding on Foucault’s work, this essay interprets pastoral power as a turning point within the long-term history of the care of the self. Through an analysis of early Christian monasticism, it claims that the pastorate emerged out of a re-conceptualization of ancient understandings of...

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Published inTheory, culture & society
Main Author Rossi, Andrea
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 23.12.2023
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ISSN0263-2764
1460-3616
DOI10.1177/02632764231203567

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Abstract Building and expanding on Foucault’s work, this essay interprets pastoral power as a turning point within the long-term history of the care of the self. Through an analysis of early Christian monasticism, it claims that the pastorate emerged out of a re-conceptualization of ancient understandings of human finitude and a correlative transformation of the techniques revolving around it. Pastoral power instantiates a specific way of framing institutionally the subject’s opening to the limits. The argument thus suggests how, and to what extent, this matrix of government still determines, albeit under a different guise, the current political phase, especially in as far as economic governmentality and its call to the indefinite self-enhancement of subjectivity are concerned.
AbstractList Building and expanding on Foucault’s work, this essay interprets pastoral power as a turning point within the long-term history of the care of the self. Through an analysis of early Christian monasticism, it claims that the pastorate emerged out of a re-conceptualization of ancient understandings of human finitude and a correlative transformation of the techniques revolving around it. Pastoral power instantiates a specific way of framing institutionally the subject’s opening to the limits. The argument thus suggests how, and to what extent, this matrix of government still determines, albeit under a different guise, the current political phase, especially in as far as economic governmentality and its call to the indefinite self-enhancement of subjectivity are concerned.
Author Rossi, Andrea
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