A theory of biopolitical power that updates Foucault, illustrating the moral implications of modern evolutionary theory.
A theory of biopolitical power that updates Foucault, illustrating the moral implications of modern evolutionary theory.
In our day, the individual has become ""a life,"" the singular of the plural noun ""population."" From this new understanding of what it means to be human comes a new form of biopolitical power with a new set of moral rules. In The Morals of Life, moral philosopher Davide Tarizzo presents a theoretical framework for understanding this transformation of the old-fashioned ""government of living beings,"" as Michel Foucault characterized biopolitics, into a new government of modular living beings, as well as a template for making sense of biopolitical power that operates on the scale of populations rather than individuals.
Tarizzo traces population thinking, the notion of modular optimization, and other conceptual keystones of the current biopolitical regime (an ""ethopolitical regime,"" in the author's terms) to their origins in twentieth-century biological thought-more precisely, and critically, evolutionary theory. Neo-Darwinism, Tarizzo argues, should be seen not only as a scientific paradigm but also as a philosophy per se, because it is evolutionary theory that today provides an answer to the old philosophical question- What is man? This new kind of philosophy, his book suggests, largely determines the way in which people look at themselves and society. Not only does it contribute to designing new technologies of power, but it also fosters subjection to the new ethopolitical regime.
By:
Davide Tarizzo Imprint: MIT Press Country of Publication: United States Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Weight: 369g ISBN:9780262549035 ISBN 10: 0262549034 Pages: 288 Publication Date:10 September 2024 Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format:Paperback Publisher's Status: Active
Preface Introduction. The Morals of Life: On Metaphysics Part I. The Morals of Selection: On Biology Chapter 1. How Darwin Changed Philosophy Chapter 2. How Darwinism Changed Science Chapter 3. Dogmatism, Scientism and Critical Naturalism Part II. The Morals of Behavior: On Biopolitics Chapter 4. Towards a New Biopolitical Regime Chapter 5. From Normalization to Optimization Chapter 6. The Government of Modular Living Beings Conclusion. The Moral of Morals: On Bioethics
Davide Tarizzo is Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Salerno, Italy.
