From Knowledge to Power: The Tyranny of Governability

Read full text
Authors: Vincenzo Bonomi
Cited by: 0

Abstract

This treatise analyzes the transformation of knowledge from an instrument of emancipation into an infrastructure of governability. Through a historical diagnosis of modernity, the author explores how truth has become an internal variable within complex management systems, where systemic functionality prevails over veracity. The work introduces the concept of the "Opaque Subject" (Soggetto Opaco) as a practical stance of political resistance and a defense of human unpredictability against algorithmic saturation and the reduction of uncertainty as an economic asset. The author argues that in an era of total legibility, the stakes of freedom shift from the right to information to the defense of the unmappable and the ungovernable.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Foucault Power and Ethics Cultural Studies and Postmodernism Psychoanalysis Philosophy and Politics

Publication details

Journal / source
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
Publication date
11 February 2026
Language
EN