The Morals of Life - Biology, Biopolitics, Bioethics

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 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.

Product details

• Authors: DAVIDE TARIZZO
• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 06.08.2024
• EAN: 9780262549035
• ISBN: 978-0-262-54903-5
• No. of pages: 288
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 20 mm
• Series: Insubordinations: Italian Radical Thought
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology; PHILOSOPHY / Political, PHILOSOPHY / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, SCIENCE / Philosophy & Social Aspects, Religion & beliefs, Ethics and moral philosophy