On Life, Bodies and Matter – (e Limits of Bio- politics. Introduction

Abstract

Qe primary aim of this paper is to analyse
the limits of biopolitics (both in the strict, spatial-
material sense and from the historical point of view).
Qe discussion will focus only on the conditions of
giving an answear to the title question and on the
concept of biopolitics.
Qe way Foucault writes history is itself enough to
understand the genesis and status of biopolitics.
Foucault’s method – here reconstructed on the basis of
his lectures from the seventies – consists of a progressive
exposure of posisitive forces hidden behind every
phenomenon. Every object, every historical event is
constituted in a constellation of forces that function as
its genetic elements. Qese powers themselves are born
earlier, usually separately, in abstraction. If they are to
take shape, to be realised, they must become related.
At the same time, their prior abstractness becomes
visible only from the perspective of their *nal form.
A similar view on history one can *nd in Marx’s
writings: the historiography always consists of searching
for genetic elements, powers that constitute a given
phenomenon.
Foucault writes the history of realisation diUerently.
Qe realisation for him is a principle of transformation.
Qe becoming of a concrete is also the becoming of
biopolitics.