Towards an Affirmative Biopolitics: Bureaucracy, Critical Thinking and Prevention

This article seeks to re-examine Michel Foucault?s concept of biopolitics in relation to genocide, taking its revision and use by Roberto Esposito (who distinguishes between negative and positive biopolitics) as a starting point, and the political views and critical thinking of Hannah Arendt as our...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Borovinsky, Tomás Guido
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/53306
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/53306
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:FOUCAULT
ARENDT
BIOPOLITICA
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5.6
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5
Descripción
Sumario:This article seeks to re-examine Michel Foucault?s concept of biopolitics in relation to genocide, taking its revision and use by Roberto Esposito (who distinguishes between negative and positive biopolitics) as a starting point, and the political views and critical thinking of Hannah Arendt as our framework. To this end, two historical examples of negative biopolitics will be analyzed ?Nazism (1933-1945) and Argentina?s military dictatorship (1976-1983). These are two cases in which politics takes a turn that transforms the whole political relationship of coexistence in plurality into a friend-enemy relationship that seeks to eliminate the Other biopolitically. In this context, the cases of Adolf Eichmann and Adolfo Scilingo will be especially examined as extreme and paradigmatic examples of a total lack of critical thinking (an anti-political bureaucracy) that enables mass murders (negative biopolitics). In the light of these ideas, I will finally suggest that affirmative biopolitics firmly grounded in critical thinking and collective, political social action can be an effective way to prevent genocidal social engineerings.