Stop Thief!

Many contemporary philosophers – including Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Giorgio Agamben – ascribe an ethical or political value to anarchy, but none ever called themselves an “anarchist.” It is as if anarchism were unmentionable and had to be concealed, even though its critique of domination and of government is poached by the philosophers.

Stop Thief! calls out the plundering of anarchism by philosophy. It’s a call that is all the more resonant today as the planetary demand for an alternative political realm raises a deafening cry. It also alerts us to a new philosophical awakening. Catherine Malabou proposes to answer the cry by re-elaborating a concept of anarchy articulated around a notion of the “non-governable” far beyond an inciting of disobedience or common critiques of capitalism. Anarchism is the only way out, the only pathway that allows us to question the legitimacy of political domination and thereby wfree up the confidence that we need if we are to survive.

Translator’s Note



1 Surveying the Horizon

2 Dissociating Anarchism from Anarchy

3 On the Virtue of Chorus Leaders: Archy and Anarchy in Aristotle’s Politics

4 Ontological Anarchy. From Greece to the Andes: Traveling with Reiner Schürmann

5 Ethical Anarchy: The Heteronomies of Emmanuel Levinas

6 “Responsible Anarchism”: Jacques Derrida’s Drive for Power

7 Anarcheology: Michel Foucault’s Last Government

8 Profanatory Anarchy: Giorgio Agamben’s Zone

9 Staging Anarchy: Jacques Rancière Without Witnesses



Conclusion: Being an Anarchist



Notes

Index “At a time when the global order of power starts to become anarchic, Malabou attests to the importance and timeliness of anarchism today. In this brilliant intervention, she rethinks anarchism through the problematic of ontological anarchy, breathing new life into this forgotten tradition.”
Saul Newman, Goldsmiths University of London

“Stop Thief! is essential reading for all those committed to understanding and overcoming historic rifts between anarchy (popularly identified with leaderless politics, anti-globalization movements and libertarianism) and anarchism as philosophy. Older, semi-forgotten anarchist ideas are brought back and rendered re-usable for a contemporary revolutionary praxis. And with these reinvigorated conceptual frameworks, protean forms of revolt come into relief, positioned against the toxic fusion of ‘government violence and the uberization of life’ that underwrites late liberal, authoritarian political cultures of today.”
Emily Apter, New York University

“Stop Thief! is clear and compelling, and its take-no-prisoners style starts to embody a new continental philosophy.”
Times Literary Supplement

“Malabou rigorously interrogates how anarchism has been inherited, where in the conceptual scheme of things it has been located, and how it has been articulated and defined, critiqued, and so on, throughout philosophical discourse, from ancient roots and origins to the contemporary era.”
Marginalia Review of Books
Catherine Malabou is Professor of Philosophy at Kingston University London.