Abstract

BELL, Vikki. La promesa del liberalismo y la performance de la libertad. Rev. argent. sociol. [online]. 2007, vol.5, n.9, pp.111-128. ISSN 1669-3248.

Through Foucault and Arendt this article discuss a notion of freedom that centres on action and not on will or sovereignty. It is suggests that they share the rejection of contentment in a solitary freedom that understands freedom as merely a feeling; both stress, instead, performance as integral to freedom. They part ways, however, when it comes to the issue of the space of this performance, and, relatedly, the possibility of freedom as an individual practice. The notion of freedom as truly beginning anew - the true performance of freedom - is arguably incompatible with the notion of calculable man upon which the ability to promise rests, and clashes with the supposition of a clarity of thought and will that is represented by the 'many-headed one' of liberalism constituted by, or standing in for, individual wills.

Keywords : Perfomance; Freedom; Promise; Arendt and Foucault; Political action.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )