Life and power – considerations on the current pandemic

Abstract

This article is divided into four parts. In the first part, we briefly introduce the concept of biopolitics, considering above all the relationship between sovereign power and biopower. We then turn to Foucault's elaboration of the concept in order to clarify meaning in general lines. This brief analysis of the notion of biopolitics leads us to the idea of thanatopolitics, which emerges, in the second part of the text, as the epithet of the mortal derivation of biopolitics. In the third part, from a biopolitical perspective, we shed light on the crisis we face. It is an effort to highlight the biopolitical meaning of the current crisis, considering the content of Foucault's reflections. Finally, in the fourth part, we update the debate about biopolitics through an analysis of the notion of immunity formulated by Esposito, which provides an important interpretive key of the current pandemic.