Was Thomas Hobbes the first biopolitical thinker?
Lindholm, S. (2023). Was Thomas Hobbes the first biopolitical thinker?. History of the Human Sciences, 36(3-4), 221-241. https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951231159260
Julkaistu sarjassa
History of the Human SciencesTekijät
Päivämäärä
2023Tekijänoikeudet
© The Author(s) 2023
Thomas Hobbes's name often comes up as scholars debate the history of biopower, which regulates the biological life of individual bodies and entire populations. This article examines whether and to what extent Hobbes may be regarded as the first biopolitical philosopher. I investigate this question by performing a close reading of Hobbes's political texts and by comparing them to some of the most influential theories on biopolitics proposed by Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Roberto Esposito, and others. Hobbes is indeed the first great thinker to assert the supreme political importance of safeguarding life. Furthermore, this prominence of non-contemplative life is not limited to mere survival but also seeks to allow for the people's happiness. This may indeed allow us to consider him as the first biopolitical philosopher, at least in some limited capacity. However, the Englishman's biopolitical stance lacks the practical aspects seen in examples of ‘properly modern’ biopolitics. Moreover, peoples’ lives were already governed radically in antiquity. I argue that Hobbes's biopolitical system was, therefore, minimal in the sense of a ‘biopolitical nightwatchman state’. However, he acted as an undeniable catalyst to the ‘properly biopolitical era of modernity’, when mundane life and happiness became the explicit main objects of virtually all politics.
...
Julkaisija
SAGE PublicationsISSN Hae Julkaisufoorumista
0952-6951Asiasanat
Julkaisu tutkimustietojärjestelmässä
https://converis.jyu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/182906097
Metadata
Näytä kaikki kuvailutiedotKokoelmat
Lisätietoja rahoituksesta
This work was supported by the Suomen Kulttuurirahasto, Alfred Kordelinin Säätiö.Lisenssi
Samankaltainen aineisto
Näytetään aineistoja, joilla on samankaltainen nimeke tai asiasanat.
-
Introduction
Backman, Jussi; Cimino, Antonio (Oxford University Press, 2022)In the introduction to the volume, the editors explain the overarching aim of the volume and contextualize the main themes of its chapters. Even if the notions of biopolitics and biopower have played a crucial role in ... -
When did biopolitics begin? : Actuality and potentiality in historical events
Prozorov, Sergei (SAGE Publications, 2022)The article addresses the ongoing debate about the origins of biopolitics. While Foucault’s analysis of biopolitics approached it as a modern rationality of government, Agamben’s Homo Sacer series presented biopolitics as ... -
From Biopolitics to Biopoetics and Back Again : On a Counterintuitive Continuity in Foucault’s Thought
Prozorov, Sergei (Oxford University Press, 2022)The chapter addresses the relation between Michel Foucault’s studies of biopolitics and his work on the ancient techniques of the self in the 1980s. It argues that Foucault’s distinction between biopoetics and biopolitics ... -
Bene vivere politice : On the (Meta)biopolitics of “Happiness”
Backman, Jussi (Oxford University Press, 2022)This chapter approaches the question of biopolitics in ancient political thought looking not at specific political techniques but at notions of the final aim of the political community. It argues that the “happiness” ... -
Foucault and the birth of psychopolitics : Towards a genealogy of crisis governance
Prozorov, Sergei (SAGE Publications, 2021)The article contributes to the genealogy of current tendencies in crisis governance by reconstructing Michel Foucault’s analysis of the application of the notion of crisis in 19th-century psychiatry. This analysis complements ...
Ellei toisin mainittu, julkisesti saatavilla olevia JYX-metatietoja (poislukien tiivistelmät) saa vapaasti uudelleenkäyttää CC0-lisenssillä.