Abstract

This paper problematizes biopolitics discussion in the context of contemporary political philosophy: Arendt, Foucault, Agamben, Esposito and Derrida. The first two are crosslinked because they put us in the “threshold” or “birth of biopolitics”, the following two because they provide the negative and affirmative dimensions thereof. While the latter indicates the character of undecidability field explored. The route I follow is, first, to expose how it is argumentatively placed each of the authors cited around the expression: “man is a political animal”. Secondly, I raise the importance of going beyond an affirmative and negative biopolitics , once I check the reviews of Italian Foucault and Arendt. Thirdly , we establish the differences between , on the one hand , the Italians in their ontologizador and simplistic approach of biopolitics and, second , Arendt and Foucault as singular historical event. Fourth, I explain in “political friendship “the alternatives proposed by these authors on the problem of managing life or biopolitics. Finally, and fifthly, I outline a reading of biopolitics as phármakon.