From biopolitics to biophilosophy: M. Foucault, G. Agamben, G. Deleuze

Abstract

The essay analyzes the notions of biopolitics in Foucault's and Agamben's works. Foucault defines biopolitics as the result of the relationship between power and life, which has been changing constantly throughout history: the sovereign power has been replaced by disciplinary power, and the latter has been replaced by biopolitics. Foucault connects the emergence of biopolitics with the development of capitalism and economical processes, and this is why he prefers to speak in terms of political economy rather than political theory. By contrast, Agamben interprets biopolitics as a quasi-ontological condition: he claims that the production of biopolitical bodies which is legitimated by the state of exception characterizes both archaic empires and contemporary democracies. These negative notions of biopolitics necessarily raise the question of how the resistance to biopolitics is possible. Both Foucault and Deleuze point out that when power takes life as the object of its manipulation, it is life itself which is turned against power. It is important to stress that biopolitical power and the power of life are not different poles of the same power but are of different nature. Thus the power of life needs to be conceptualized in different terms which are taken from Deleuzian philosophy. The article seeks to define these terms and conceptualize the philosophy of life or biophilosophy, and in this way tries to answer the question of how resistance to power is possible.