What is Power? by Byung-Chul Han
Power is commonly defined as a causal relation: an individuals power is the cause that produces a change of behaviour in someone else against the latters will. Han rejects this view, arguing that power is better understood as a mediation between egoand alterwhich creates a complex array of reciprocal interdependencies. Power can also be exercised not only against the other but also within and through the other, and this involves a much higher degree of mediation. This perspective enables us to see that power and freedom are not opposed to one another but are manifestations of the same power, differing only in the degree of mediation.
This highly original account of power will be of great interest to students and scholars of philosophy and of social, political and cultural theory, as well as to anyone seeking to understand the many ways in which power shapes our lives today.