On the Greek Origins of Biopolitics : A Reinterpretation of the History of Biopower

175 Pages·2016·1.69 MB·English

by  Mika Ojakangas

On the Greek Origins of Biopolitics
This book explores the origins of Western biopolitics in ancient Greek poli-
tical thought. Ojakangas argues that the conception of politics as the regula-
tion of the quantityand qualityof population inthenameof thesecurityand
happiness of the state and its inhabitants is as old as Western political
thought itself: the politico-philosophical categories of classical thought, parti-
cularlythoseofPlatoandAristotle,werealreadybiopoliticalcategories.Intheir
works on politics, Plato and Aristotle not only deal with all the central topics
of biopolitics from the political point of view, but show how for them these
topics are the very keystone of politics and the art of government.
Although the Western understanding of politics was already biopolitical in
classicalGreece,thebook does not arguethatthe historyof biopoliticswould
constitute a continuum from antiquity to the twentieth century. Instead Oja-
kangas argues that the birth of Christianity entailed a crisis of the classical
biopolitical rationality, as the majority of classical biopolitical themes con-
cerning the government of men and populations faded away or were outright
rejected. It was not until the Renaissance of classical culture and literature –
includingthetranslationofPlato’sandAristotle’spoliticalworksintoLatin–that
biopolitics became topical again in the West.
The book will be of great interest to scholars and students in the field of
socialandpoliticaltheory,moralandpoliticalphilosophy,IRtheory,intellectual
history, and classical studies.
Mika Ojakangas is Professor of Political Thought, Rhetoric and Culture in
the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy at the University of
Jyväskylä, Finland.
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On the Greek Origins
of Biopolitics
A reinterpretation of the history
of biopower
Mika Ojakangas
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