On Biopolitics In Michel Foucault’s Philosophy

Biopolitics is the foucauldian conceptual tool to describe the new technology of power, it is considered as a useful vision to comprehend the modern society. This dissertation, which is dedicated to study Foucault’s biopolitics, is firstly based on the discussion of the foucauldian methodology of his study of power since the research is only tenable when Foucault’s way of studying power is clarified. The foundation of Foucault’s methodology allows us to explain the meaning of biopolitics, as it is a technology of power which was born in the 18th century which concerns life way more than death. Through the comparison between sovereign power and biopolitics, disciplinary power and biopolitics, the characteristics of biopolitics and its detailed way of functioning are revealed. This part is first centered on the concept of ’population’ as the target of biopolitics, and the logic of functioning behind biopolitics, which is called ’normalisation’. Also, the concept of’security disposition’as the way of functioning of biopolitics is discussed. The concept of biopolitics has played an important role in Foucault’s study of power. It should be considered as a concept of transition which inherits the former topic as discipline and, at the same time,introduce the new topic of government. Last but not least, due to the great impact made by the Foucault on the human science, the discussion of distinct ways of inheriting Foucault should be discussed. Among the three different ways of inheriting biopolitics, the way of ’theory of fiction’, proposed by Luca Paltrinieri is considered to be the most appropriate, due to its conformity to Foucault’s context.