10 January 1979

Abstract

[YOU KNOW] FREUD’S QUOTATION: “Acheronta movebo.”1 Well, I would like to take the theme for this year’s lectures from another, less well-known quotation from someone who, generally speaking at least, is also less well-known, the English Statesman Walpole,2 who, with reference to his way of governing, said: “Quieta non movere,”3 “Let sleeping dogs lie.” ∼ In a sense, this is the opposite of Freud. In fact, this year I would like to continue with what I began to talk about last year, that is to say, to retrace the history of what could be called the art of government. You recall the strict sense in which I understood “art of government,” since in using the word “to govern” I left out the thousand and one different modalities and possible ways that exist for guiding men, directing their conduct, constraining their actions and reactions, and so on. Thus I left to one side all that is usually understood, and that for a long time was understood, as the government of children, of families, of a household, of souls, of communities, and so forth. I only considered, and again this year will only consider the government of men insofar as it appears as the exercise of political sovereignty.

Questions of method. ∼ Suppose universals do not exist. ∼ Summaiy of the previous year’s lectures: the limited objective of the government of raison d’Etat (external politics) and unlimited objective of the police state (internal politics). Law as principle of the external limitation of raison d’Etat. ∼ Perspective of this year’s lectures: political economy as principle of the internal limitation of governmental reason. ∼ What is at stake in this research: the coupling of a set ofpractices and a regime of truth and the effects of its inscription in reality What is liberalism?