The work of Michel Foucault has had a huge influence on contemporary philosophy, but one thing it lacks is a normative ethical framework.

Taking the late 'ethical turn' in the philosopher's thought as its starting point, this ambitious study seeks to construct an ethics beyond anything Foucault ever attempted while remaining consistent with his core postulates. In doing so it advances the concept of 'life continuance', which expresses a normative orientation to the future in terms of the quest for survival and well-being, giving rise to irreducible normative values as part of the discursive order of events.

This approach is explored in contrast with a range of other, established systems, from the Kantian to the Marxist to contract ethics and utilitarianism.