The bio-thanato-political paradox and mechanisms of security

Abstract

This paper problematizes the concept of biopolitics through Foucauldian and post-Foucauldian reflection. To explore the meaning of biopolitics, it begins with the relationship between philosophy and the present in Foucault’s thought. It then examines the paradoxical economy of relations between Bios and Thanatos and its different interpretations by M. Foucault, G. Agamben and R. Esposito, as well as the links between biopolitics, racism and immunization dispositifs. Although both dispositifs are fundamental to the modern biopolitical diagram, Foucault’s concept of biopolitics cannot be reduced to them. The paper argues that biopolitics and the notion of life itself can only be understood by considering the emergence of «population» and the mechanisms of «security». Only within these mechanisms can the paradoxical structure of biopolitics be recognized.