Davi Maranhão De Conti

Pretende-se neste artigo lançar luz sobre a problemática do biopoder a partir de uma leitura tripartite do tema. O termo biopolítica involve uma oscilação inexorável, de que irrompem interpretações que, em sua multiplicidade, associam-se sobretudo a dois pontos de vista acerca da relação entre vida e política: de um lado uma vida que é mero objeto do poder, de outro uma vida que escapa dele. Almeja-se num gesto topográfico tanto esboçar os acidentes do terreno interpretativo do biopoder quanto evidenciar o trânsito pela noção de vida que os caracteriza. Entre uma vida exposta ao poder e uma vida que resiste, há também uma vida desontologizada, correlativa às técnicas e estratégias de poder e de saber.

An investigation into the concept of life in Michel Foucault's work leads both to a more precise understanding of the development of his work and to the elaboration of a critical look at recent interpretations of his thought, especially in relation to the readings of the concept of biopolitics that oscillate between a positive and a negative interpretation of this concept. The analyzes of this term, which have proliferated among recent readings of Foucault's work, seem to lack a more accurate understanding of the problem of life, from which largely results the very acuity of Foucault's reflections on biopower. What above all guides this brief and incipient reflection on Foucault’s notion of life is Muhle's (2021) finding that Foucault does not attribute an ontological status to the notion of life and that this life plays a double role (Gegenstand and Funktionsmodell) regarding its implication in biopower, as well as Mauer's assumption (2015) that Foucault turns to the notion of life in order to deviate from the concept of man, i.e., from humanism. These two hypotheses help us not only to shed light on the elaboration of Foucault's thought as a whole, particularly with regard to biopower, but also on recent readings of the notion of biopolitics.