Michel Foucault and the enigmatic origins of bio-politics and governmentality

2012

Even a superficial look at the classical ideas and practices of government of populations makes it immediately apparent that there is a peculiarity in Foucault’s genealogy of western bio-politics and governmentality. According to Foucault, western governmental rationality can be traced back to the Judeo-Christian tradition in general and to the Christian ideology and practice of the pastorate in particular. In this article, my purpose is to show that Christianity was not the prelude to what Foucault calls governmentality but rather marked a rupture in the development that started in classical Greece and Rome and continued in early modern Europe. With the rise of Christianity, the majority …

Er?mos Aporos as the Paradigmatic Figure of Western (Thanato) Political Subject

2013

The originary figure of the Western political subject is neither the Aristotelian zōon politikon nor the Agambenian homo sacer but the Socratic erēmos aporos. Like the Agambenian homo sacer, the Socratic erēmos aporos is abandoned by his fellow citizens, not outside the polis but in the polis, being a refugee in his own city. He lives, as Callicles says of Socrates in Gorgias (486c), “in his city as an absolute outcast.” Moreover, like the Agambenian homo sacer, the Socratic erēmos aporos also lives in a state close to death—“in a state as close to death as possible,” as Socrates says of himself in Phaedo (67d). However, there is a decisive difference between the Agambenian homo sacer and …

Polis and Oikos : The Art of Politics in the Greek City-State

2020

The Greek city-state has traditionally been viewed as an entity that was divided into two distinct spheres (oikos and polis) and governed by two distinct arts (oikonomia and politikê technê). The aim of this article is to show that this image of the Greek city-state is not very accurate. The relationship between the oikos and the polis was not exclusive in classical poleis. Particularly in Athens during the democratic period, the polis was depicted as a family writ large, and to the extent that oikos was seen as an entity of its own, it was a part of the polis, not excluded from or opposed to it. My aim is to show that the art of the household and the art of politics were not distinct arts …

Biopolitics in the Political Thought of Classical Greece

2016

This article deals with biopolitics in classical Greek thought. Its aim is to demonstrate that biopolitics is not a distinctively modern phenomenon. It is as old a phenomenon as western political thought itself. Focusing on Aristotle’s Politics as well as Plato’s Republic and Laws, I argue that the politico-philosophical categories of classical thought were already biopolitical categories. In their books on politics, Plato and Aristotle do not only deal with all the central topics of biopolitics (sexual intercourse, marriage, pregnancy, childcare, public health, education, population, and so forth) from the political point of view but for them these topics are the very keystone of politics …

Carl Schmitt and the political thought of late modernity.

2004

Yliopistojen ohjausjärjestelmästä

2014