The Care of Life : Transdisciplinary Perspectives in Bioethics and Biopolitics

This interdisciplinary collection of essays demonstrates how the ethical and political problems we are confronted with today have come to focus largely on life. The contributors to this volume define and assess the specific meaning of life itself. It is only by doing so that we can understand why life has become an all-encompassing problem, why all questions, especially ethical and political, have become vital questions. We have reached a moment in history where every distinction and opposition is no longer in relation to life, but within it, and where life is at once a theoretical and practical problem. This book throws light on this nexus of problems at the heart of contemporary debates in bioethics and biopolitics. It helps us understand why and how life is understood, valued, cared for and framed today. Taking a genuinely transdisciplinary approach, these essays demonstrate how life is a multifaceted problem and how diverse the origins, foundations and also consequences of bioethics and biopolitics therefore are. Introduction: Life: Who Cares? / Giuseppe Bianco, With Miguel De Beistegui -- A Brief History Of Bioethics / Guillaume Le Blanc -- Between (bio)-politics And (bio)-ethics: What Life? / Luca Paltrinieri -- What Is Vital? / Frédéric Worms -- The Return Of Vitalism: Canguilhem, Bergson And The Project Of A Biophilosophy / Charles T. Wolfe And Andy Wong -- Life And Objective Norms: Caguilhem In The Context Of Contemporary Meta-ethics / Sander Werkhoven -- Critical And Political Stakes Of A Philosophy Of Norms: Part I: Towards A Critical Philosophy Of Norms / Julien Pieron -- Critical And Political Stakes Of A Philosophy Of Norms: Part Ii: Theory Of Norms And Social Criticism / Florence Caeymaex -- The Racial Politics Of Life Itself: Goldstein, Uexküll, Canguilhem And Fanon / Robert Bernasconi -- History And The Politics Of Life / Claudia Stein And Roger Cooter -- Life Of Pain: Remarks About Negativity And Effort In Georges Canguilhem / Giuseppe Bianco -- Human Life And Subjectivity: Learning From Foucault / Piergiorgio Donatelli -- Ethics Of Care And Face Transplants: After Levinas, Deleuze And Guattari / Marjorie Gracieuse -- Ageing And Longevity / Paul-antoine Miquel -- Generational Change As A Vehicle For Radical Conceptual Change: The Case For Periodic Rejuvenation / Steve Fuller -- Sexuality And Liberalism / Patrick Singy -- Desire Within And Beyond Biopolitics / Miquel De Beistegui -- The Pragmatics Of Desire And Pleasure: Rethinking Somatic Powers With Foucalt, Deleuze And Guattari / Marjorie Gracieuse And Nicolae Morar -- Revenge Of The Tender Pervert: On A Troubling Concept That Refuses To Go Away / Hector Kollias -- Jouissance In Lacan's Seminar Xx: Progelomena To A New Reading Of Strange Enjoyment And Being An Angel / Lorenzo Chiesa. Edited By Miguel De Beistegui, Giuseppe Bianco And Marjorie Gracieuse. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Contents 6 Acknowledgements 8 Introduction 10 Part I: “Bioethics” and “Biopolitics” 32 Chapter One: A Brief History of Bioethics 34 Chapter Two: Between (Bio)-Politics and (Bio)-Ethics: What Life? 42 Chapter Three: What Is Vital? 56 Part II: Norms and Normality 70 Chapter Four: The Return of Vitalism: Canguilhem, Bergson and the Project of a Biophilosophy 72 Chapter Five: Life and Objective Norms: Canguilhem in the Context of Contemporary Meta-ethics 88 Chapter Six: Critical and Political Stakes of a Philosophy of Norms 104 Chapter Seven: Critical and Political Stakes of a Philosophy of Norms 118 Chapter Eight: The Racial Politics of Life Itself: Goldstein, Uexküll, Canguilhem and Fanon 130 Chapter Nine: History and the Politics of “Life” 144 Part III: Pathology and Ageing 158 Chapter Ten: Life of Pain: Remarks about Negativity and Effort in Georges Canguilhem 160 Chapter Eleven: Human Life and Subjectivity: Learning from Foucault 174 Chapter Twelve: Ethics of Care and Face Transplants: After Levinas, Deleuze and Guattari 190 Chapter Thirteen: Ageing and Longevity 208 Chapter Fourteen: Generational Change as a Vehicle for Radical Conceptual Change: The Case for Periodic Rejuvenation 220 Part IV: Desire and Pleasure 234 Chapter Fifteen: Sexuality and Liberalism 236 Chapter Sixteen: Desire Within and Beyond Biopolitics 250 Chapter Seventeen: The Pragmatics of Desire and Pleasure 270 Chapter Eighteen: Revenge of the Tender Pervert: On a Troubling Concept That Refuses to Go Away 288 Chapter Nineteen: Jouissance in Lacan’s Seminar XX 304 Index 318 About the Contributors 328 The Care of Life: Transdisciplinary Perspectives in Bioethics and Biopolitics is a striking collection of interdisciplinary essays exploring key debates in, and the relationship between, bioethics and biopolitics.