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

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? Cover Title Cover Contents Preface Introduction Chapter 1 The Invention of an Epidemic INVENTING AN EPIDEMIC: TWO DOGMAS PRINCIPLES AND PRAGMATISM THE NATURE OF A PANDEMIC THE RETROSPECTIVE POWER OF THE RESPONSE JUDGEMENT AND THE POINT OF COUNTERPRODUCTIVITY: THE NATURAL AND THE HUMAN SCIENCES DID IT EXIST? HAS AN EVENT TAKEN PLACE? ‘DENYING’ (UN)QUESTIONABLE EVENTS: THE HOLOCAUST, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND THE VIRUS THE PIETY OF THE EVENT AND ‘PHILOSOPHICAL NARCISSISM’ NEITHER EVENT NOR NONEVENT Chapter 2 Statistics and Their Vicissitudes BENVENUTO AND THE QUESTION OF STATISTICS PUBLIC OPINION CAYLEY AND ILLICH: STATISTICAL RISKS ON PROBABILITY AND PREDICTION BETWEEN THE NATURAL AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES AGAMBEN’S PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE FROM POSSIBILITY TO PROBABILITY: A GENEALOGY OF MODERN STATISTICS PREDICTIONS AND MODELS SEEING THE FUTURE: PREDICTIONS CONSTRUCTING ‘THE SCIENCE’ AGAMBEN ON STATISTICAL PRESENTATION THE UNITY OF A SOVEREIGN SCIENCE ŽIŽEK ON STATISTICS AND THE APORIA FOR THE LEFT Chapter 3 The Unity of the Non-pharmaceutical Response THE DISUNITY OF LOCKDOWNS: THE TIME OF LOCKDOWNS: THE PROMISE OF AN END THE RHETORIC OF CIVIL WAR THE LOGIC OF (AUTO)IMMUNITY Chapter 4 The Paradox of Immune Community, from Deconstruction to Biopolitics JEAN-LUC NANCY ON GENERALISED ‘VIRALITY’ VIRALITY IN THE BROADEST SENSE ROBERTO ESPOSITO: THE METONYM IS ITSELF BIOPOLITICAL INSTITUTED LIFE HOSTILE OR HOSPITABLE IMMUNISATION? THE NECESSITY FOR INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR RETHINKING THE BARENESS OF LIFE AND ‘DIFFERENTIAL VULNERABILITY’ THE (RELATIONAL) LIFE OF THE HOME AND THE POLITICAL REALM: ELETTRA STIMILLI ANALYTIC ORTHODOXIES ON THE VIRUS AN IMMUNE COMMUNITY: A PARADOX FOR PHILOSOPHERS TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES Chapter 5 Exposure and the Question of Sacrifice SLOTERDIJK’S CO-IMMUNISM MALABOU AND ISOLATION CARE FOR YOUTH AND THE INVISIBLY CONTAGIOUS WE, VIRUS THE QUESTION OF SACRIFICE THE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE INSTITUTIONS OF HEALTHCARE: IVAN ILLICH GADAMER: THE SELF-UNDERSTANDING OF THE PATIENT IN THE PROCESS OF MEDICAL CARE THE NON-PHARMACEUTICAL FORM OF MEDICINE THE UNITY OF ‘HERD IMMUNITY’ HERD IMMUNITY AND THE QUESTION OF SACRIFICE ESPOSITO ON SACRIFICE PROPORTION: SACRIFICE ON BOTH SIDES BEYOND SACRIFICE Chapter 6 Giorgio Agamben DI CESARE AGAINST IMMUNE COMMUNITY AGAINST THE LOGIC OF IMMUNITY ‘SACRIFICING’ FREEDOM BIOPOLITICS TOWARDS A NEW COMMUNITY Conclusion THE EXCEPTION TO BECOME THE RULE? THE PERPETUATION OF FEAR AGAMBEN, FREEDOM, AND THE LEFT Postlude Notes INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION Bibliography Index About the Author