ABSTRACT
As a discourse which is implicated in the forms of power it aims to limit, humanist political theory cannot promote modes of subjectification that are not simultaneously modes of subjection. It cannot determine the limits that would allow for individualization without simultaneous totalization. The question now is, what could break the snare of the humanist regime? In Foucault’s words: ‘How can the growth of capabilities be disconnected from the intensification of power relations?’ (1984c:48). Foucault is adamant that it is possible to think in ways other than those defined by humanism, that we can resist, that some form of freedom is attainable, and that new modes of subjectivity can be promoted. His philosophical work is integral to such efforts, as it works against the limits imposed by humanism (44). It
will not deduce from the form of what we are what it is impossible for us to do and to know, but it will separate out, from the contingency that has made us what we are, the possibility of no longer being, doing or thinking what we are, do or think…it is seeking to give new impetus…to the undefined work of freedom (46).
