Philosophy, Biopolitics, and the Virus

The Elision of an Alternative

Michael Lewis

$160

Hardback

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English

Lexington Books
12 September 2023

Philosophy; Social & political philosophy; History of ideas; Epidemiology & medical statistics

Every aspect of the pandemic was said to be ‘total,’ absolute, and undiscriminating. Its very name implied as much. The virus was everywhere, and a threat to us all. In Philosophy, Biopolitics, and the Virus: The Elision of an Alternative, Michael Lewis identifies three moments within the pandemic that were conceived in such a monolithic way: (1) ‘The Science,’ which had to be unanimous if it was to assume a sovereign role, and to have us ‘follow’ it; (2) ‘non-pharmaceutical interventions,’ which were regarded as the only possible response, without which death and disease would ‘run riot’; and (3) the one sole remedy that could bring about the promised end of the restrictions, to the exclusion of every other conception of medicine, treatment, and care. In each case of seeming universality, dissent immediately identifies you as a friend of the virus. And yet if all of these cases have been revealing their counterproductivity ever since, what are we to make of the elision of alternatives? Is it part of a more general tendency to thrust the questioning of hegemonic notions to the margins of respectable discourse, inhabited solely by the mad, bad, and dangerous to know?

By: Michael Lewis
Imprint: Lexington Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 239mm, Width: 157mm, Spine: 21mm
Weight: 553g
ISBN: 9781666923780
ISBN 10: 1666923788
Pages: 268
Publication Date: 12 September 2023
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Michael Lewis is senior lecturer in philosophy at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Reviews for Philosophy, Biopolitics, and the Virus: The Elision of an Alternative

"Michael Lewis has written an agonising and deeply personal book. As a specialist on Giorgio Agamben, he plunges deep into the context of the philosophical justifications of the acceptance of lockdown policies -- and the consequences of them for previously held ""truisms"" of the field. This is as searing, powerful, relevant, and intellectually alive a work of philosophy as I have read for many years."