The Government of Life: Foucault, Biopolitics, and Neoliberalism

Published by Fordham University Press 2014

The Government of Life

Foucault, Biopolitics, and Neoliberalism

Edited by: Vanessa Lemm and Miguel Vatter

In the series Forms of Living

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780823256006

Overview
Contents

About this book

An examination of Foucault’s last thought, centered on his ideas about biopolitics, governmentality, and subjectivity. This volume aims to explain why the politics and policies of neoliberalism are best understood as a “government of life” whose effects and consequences still remain to be fathomed.

Author / Editor information

Lemm Vanessa :

Vanessa Lemm is Professor of Philosophy at the School of Humanities and Languages at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. She is the author of Nietzsche’s Animal Philosophy: Culture, Politics, and the Animality of the Human Being (New York: Fordham University Press, 2009), Nietzsche y el pensamiento politico contemporáneo (Santiago: Fondo de cultura económica, 2013) and several articles on Nietz sche, biopolitics, and contemporary political theory. She has also edited volumes on Hegel and Foucault..Vatter Miguel :

Miguel Vatter is Professor of Political Science at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He is the editor of Crediting God: Religion and Sovereignty in the Age of Global Capitalism (New York, 2010) and author of The Republic of the Living: Affirmative Biopolitics and Civil Society (New York, 2014). He is a founding member of the biopolitics research network BioPolitica.cl.

Reviews

—Michael Behrent:
“The Government of Life does not simply analyze Foucault’s ideas about governmentality. It reconsiders Foucault’s thought from the standpoint of recent developments in continental and especially Italian philosophy with philosophers such as Giorgio Agamben, Roberto Esposito, and Toni Negri.”

—Antonio Negri:
Over the last twenty years, few concepts have been more investigated and used than the one of "biopolitics". However, only rarely has it been attempted to compare these uses in their variety and in their contradiction. This volume has the merit of offering a subtle and rich, complete and articulate view on what "biopolitics" means today, and in this way contributes to establish a political grammar for the start of this century.

—James Martel:
The Government of Life reminds us of how prescient Foucault was. We have so few guides in our present age of unbridled neoliberalism and biopolitics; Foucault was one of the few who saw what was coming. The authors in this volume richly plumb Foucault's work in order to make sense of our predicament, to recuperate from the maw of biopolitics a more affirmative way of life. These authors speak to one another and to Foucault through a focus on common texts. In doing so they engage in critical questions about sovereignty, bodies and human life that make for essential reading for anyone interested in the underlying fabric of our time and our politics.

—Michael Dillon:
An extraordinarily incisive and comprehensive collection of essays by an internationally distinguished list of contributors, Foucault, Biopolitics and Neoliberalism brilliantly discloses how Foucault’s thinking continues to challenge and provoke 30 years after his death. No memorializing of Foucault, these essays think with and against his work in a spirit of critical engagement which could provide no better tribute to him.

We are facing an explosion of research on biopolitical questions today, and this volume certainly represents a welcome addition to this growing literature.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Vanessa Lemm and Miguel Vatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. The Nomos of Neoliberalism
1. The Fourth Age of Security Frédéric Gros Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
2. The Law of the House hold: Foucault, Neoliberalism, and the Iranian Revolution Melinda Cooper Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
3. The Risks of Security: Liberalism, Biopolitics, and Fear Thomas Lemke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
Part II. Genealogies of Biopolitics
4. A Genealogy of Biopolitics: The Notion of Life in Canguilhem and Foucault Maria Muhle Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
5. Power over Life, Politics of Death: Forms of Resistance to Biopower in Foucault Francesco Paolo Adorno Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	98
6. Identity, Nature, Life: Three Biopolitical Deconstructions Judith Revel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	112
Part III. Liberalism between Legality and Governmentality
7. From Reason of State to Liberalism: The Coup d’État as Form of Government Roberto Nigro Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127
8. Foucault and Rawls: Government and Public Reason Paul Patton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
9. Foucault and Hayek: Republican Law and Liberal Civil Society Miguel Vatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
Part IV. Philosophy as Ethics and Embodiment
10. Parrhesia between East and West: Foucault and Dissidence Simona Forti Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
11. The Embodiment of Truth and the Politics of Community: Foucault and the Cynics Vanessa Lemm Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	208
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
List of Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	281

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Pages
- Main content: 304
Keywords: Biopolitics; Neoliberalism; Foucault; Government; power; Life; Security

eBook

Published: April 5, 2014
ISBN: 9780823256006