Doing Away with Life? : On Biophilosophy, the Non/Living, Toxic Embodiment, and Reimagining Ethics

• The question of life has been in the centre of attention since the inception of Western philosophy, including the pre-Socratics search for the essence of life to Aristitle's "psukhe" with its own capacity for self-nourishment, growth and decay and Kant's take on life as the question of the human subject engaging with life as an object of thought. Philosophical queries into the question of life also however asks what critical relations are precluded in the very classifications of what gets to count as life and not-life. Process ontological philosophies, after Canguilheim and Foucault, have reformulated the life/non-life issue on terms of ontological politics and ethics with key concepts such as "necropolitics" (Mbebe), "bare life" and "thanatopolitics" (Agamben). Bioart and feminist biophilosophy (Radomska) offers new challenges to the taken-for-granted notion of life and introduces the concept of "non/living". Examples are given from feminist environmental humanities research on toxic embodiment and from feminist science studies on laboratory practices of life and killing. A suggestion is made that these two concepts, toxic embodiment and non/living work as biophilosophical tools of analysis and exploration. This because they redirect our attention from essences and norms to processes, potentials and possibilities of living and dying in the here and now.  

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Genusstudier (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Gender Studies (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora -- Övrig annan humaniora (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Other Humanities not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Filosofi, etik och religion -- Filosofi (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Philosophy, Ethics and Religion -- Philosophy (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Filosofi, etik och religion -- Etik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Philosophy, Ethics and Religion -- Ethics (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi -- Teknikhistoria (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology -- History of Technology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

feminist biophilosophy

bio art

feminist environmental humanities

History of Science, Technology and Environment

Historiska studier av teknik, vetenskap och miljö

Art, Technology and Design

Konst, teknik och design

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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