The Government of Life: Foucault, Biopolitics, and Neoliberalism (Forms of Living)

This volume focuses on the relation that Foucault established between the ideas of biopower and biopolitics and the studies of governmentality in his last Courses at the Collège de France and in his occasional writings of this period. The essays in this volume adopt and contribute to Foucault’s analysis of biopolitics as a guiding thread to understand why liberalism and neoliberalism is a “government of life.” The essays in this collection, read as a whole, suggest that the linkage between governmentality, understood as a “conduct of conduct,” and biopolitics, understood as power over biological life, is fruitfully illuminated by considering the idea of a “normative order”: a way to regiment and govern the lives of people that brings together the religious as well as the economic dimensions of social order. All the chapters address the relationship between governmentality and biopolitics, but they do so from a variety of perspectives: some emphasize the problem of security; others the problem of managing the life of populations; others focus on the normative order of neoliberalism; still others address the way in which Foucault returns to ancient Greek philosophy and Christian and Islamic religion to understand this relationship. Part I. The Nomas Of Neoliberalism. The Fourth Age Of Security / Frederic Gros ; The Law Of The Household: Foucault, Neoliberalism, And The Iranian Revolution / Melinda Cooper ; The Risks Of Security: Liberalism, Biopolitics, And Fear / Thomas Lemke -- Part Ii. Genealogies Of Biopolitics. A Genealogy Of Biopolitics: The Notion Of Life In Canguilhem And Foucault / Maria Muhle ; Power Over Life, Politics Of Death: Forms Of Resistance To Biopower In Foucault / Francesco Paolo Adorno ; Identity, Nature, Life: Three Biopolitical Deconstructions / Judith Revel -- Part Iii. Liberalism Between Legality And Governmentality. From Reason Of State To Liberalism: The Coup D'etat As Form Of Government / Roberto Nigro ; Foucault And Rawls: Government And Public Reason / Paul Patton ; Foucault And Hayek: Republican Law And Liberal Civil Society / Miguel Vatter -- Part Iv. Philosophy As Ethics And Embodiment. Parrhesia Between East And West: Foucault And Dissidence / Simona Forti ; The Embodiment Of Truth And The Politics Of Community: Foucault And The Cynics / Vanessa Lemm. Edited By Vanessa Lemm And Miguel Vatter. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 257-275) And Index. Rapp begins with a question posed by the poet Theodore Roethke: "Should we say that the self, once perceived, becomes a soul?" Through her examination of Plato's Phaedrus and her insights about the place of forgetting in a life, Rapp answers Roethke's query with a resounding Yes. In so doing, Rapp reimagines the Phaedrus, interprets anew Plato's relevance to contemporary life, and offers an innovative account of forgetting as a fertile fragility constitutive of humanity. Drawing upon poetry and comparisons with other ancient Greek and Daoist texts, Rapp brings to light overlooked features of the Phaedrus, disrupts longstanding interpretations of Plato as the facile champion of memory, and offers new lines of sight onto (and from) his corpus. Her attention to the Phaedrus and her meditative apprehension of the permeable character of human life leave our understanding of both Plato and forgetting inescapably altered. Unsettle everything you think you know about Plato, suspend the twentieth-century entreaty to "Never forget," and behold here a new mode of critical reflection in which textual study and humanistic inquiry commingle to expansive effect Cover Title Copyright Contents Introduction Part One | The Nomos of Neoliberalism 1 | The Fourth Age of Security 2 | The Law of the House hold: Foucault, Neoliberalism, and the Iranian Revolution 3 | The Risks of Security: Liberalism, Biopolitics, and Fear Part Two | Genealogies of Biopolitics 4 | A Genealogy of Biopolitics: The Notion of Life in Canguilhem and Foucault 5 | Power over Life, Politics of Death: Forms of Resistance to Biopower in Foucault 6 | Identity, Nature, Life: Three Biopolitical Deconstructions Part Three | Liberalism between Legality and Governmentality 7 | From Reason of State to Liberalism: The Coup d’État as Form of Government 8 | Foucault and Rawls: Government and Public Reason 9 | Foucault and Hayek: Republican Law and Liberal Civil Society Part Four | Philosophy as Ethics and as Embodiment 10 | Parrhesia between East and West: Foucault and Dissidence 11 | The Embodiment of Truth and the Politics of Community: Foucault and the Cynics Notes Bibliography Contributors Index Foucault’s late work on biopolitics and governmentality has established him as the fundamental thinker of contemporary continental political thought and as a privileged source for our current understanding of neoliberalism and its technologies of power. In this volume, an international and interdisciplinary group of Foucault scholars examines his ideas of biopower and biopolitics and their relation to his project of a history of governmentality and to a theory of the subject found in his last courses at the College de France. Many of the chapters engage critically with the Italian theoretical reception of Foucault. At the same time, the originality of this collection consists in the variety of perspectives and traditions of reception brought to bear upon the problematic connections between biopolitics and governmentality established by Foucault’s last works. Rapp begins with a question posed by poet Theodore Roethke: 'should we say that the self, once perceived, becomes a soul?'. Through her examination of Plato's Phaedrus and her insights about the place of forgetting in a life, Rapp answers Roethke's query with a resounding 'yes'. In so doing, Rapp offers a re-imagined view onto the Phaedrus, a recast interpretation of Plato's relevance to contemporary life, and an innovative account of forgetting as a fertile fragility constitutive of humanity This book examines Foucault's ideas of biopower and biopolitics and their relation to his project of a history of governmentality and to a theory of the subject found in his last Courses at the College de France. The essays in this volume explain and expand on Foucault's analysis of biopolitics in order to understand why liberal and neoliberal regimes are forms of government of life Rapp offers a recast interpretation of Plato through a focus upon the transformative processes required by his texts in which spaces of ordinary oblivion put a reader at risk. The decomposing and generative effects of these oblivions reflect the ineluctable porosity of human life and the fertile fragility of forgetting. An examination of Foucault's last thought, centered on his ideas about biopolitics, governmentality, and subjectivity. This volume aims to explain why the politics and policies of neoliberalism are best understood as a "government of life" whose effects and consequences still remain to be fathomed. Francesco Paolo Adorno, Melinda Cooper, Simona Forti, Frédéric Gros, Thomas Lemke, Vanessa Lemm, Maria Muhle, Roberto Nigro, Paul Patton, Judith Revel, Miguel Vatter Book jacket