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dc.contributor.authorLindholm, Samuel
dc.date.accessioned2023-04-26T04:35:13Z
dc.date.available2023-04-26T04:35:13Z
dc.date.issued2023
dc.identifier.citationLindholm, S. (2023). Was Thomas Hobbes the first biopolitical thinker?. <i>History of the Human Sciences</i>, <i>36</i>(3-4), 221-241. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951231159260" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951231159260</a>
dc.identifier.otherCONVID_182906097
dc.identifier.urihttps://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/86587
dc.description.abstractThomas 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.en
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherSAGE Publications
dc.relation.ispartofseriesHistory of the Human Sciences
dc.rightsCC BY 4.0
dc.subject.otherAgamben, Giorgio
dc.subject.otherbiopolitics
dc.subject.otherbiopower
dc.subject.otherFoucault, Michel
dc.subject.otherHobbes, Thomas
dc.titleWas Thomas Hobbes the first biopolitical thinker?
dc.typearticle
dc.identifier.urnURN:NBN:fi:jyu-202304262695
dc.contributor.laitosYhteiskuntatieteiden ja filosofian laitosfi
dc.contributor.laitosDepartment of Social Sciences and Philosophyen
dc.type.urihttp://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle
dc.type.coarhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_2df8fbb1
dc.description.reviewstatuspeerReviewed
dc.format.pagerange221-241
dc.relation.issn0952-6951
dc.relation.numberinseries3-4
dc.relation.volume36
dc.type.versionpublishedVersion
dc.rights.copyright© The Author(s) 2023
dc.rights.accesslevelopenAccessfi
dc.subject.ysoyhteiskuntafilosofia
dc.subject.ysobiopolitiikka
dc.subject.ysopoliittinen filosofia
dc.subject.ysopolitiikantutkimus
dc.subject.ysoyhteiskuntapolitiikka
dc.format.contentfulltext
jyx.subject.urihttp://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p13819
jyx.subject.urihttp://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p23208
jyx.subject.urihttp://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p18022
jyx.subject.urihttp://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p8773
jyx.subject.urihttp://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p3908
dc.rights.urlhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.relation.doi10.1177/09526951231159260
jyx.fundinginformationThis work was supported by the Suomen Kulttuurirahasto, Alfred Kordelinin Säätiö.
dc.type.okmA1


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