Craft of Soul

This book reconstructs an ancient theory of power and applies it to contemporary debates on sovereignty. It begins by reconstructing techne as a form of strategic power-knowledge through an examination of Archaic and Classical Greek texts. It then analyses its political manifestation, politike techne , which Socrates describes as ‚the craft of the soul‘. In Plato’s later thought, this craft is directed toward the education and normalisation of individual souls. Finally, politike techne , early modern reason of state, and Guantánamo Bay are examined as distinct paradigms of the generation of sovereignty.