The main theme of my lecture will be finite life which\, philosophically speaking\, is the bedrock of modern biopolitics. Michel Foucault defined biopolitics as a new system of &lsquo\;governing the living&rsquo\; which is no longer concerned with the immortal souls of its subjects\, but rather concentrates solely on their natural well-being\, spent within the mortal cycle of birth and death. \; Foucault accepts the basic premiss of this biopolitics &ndash\; that life is reduced to the natural law of birth and death &ndash\; while slightly correcting its naive liberal trust in the &lsquo\;naturalness&rsquo\; of human existence. \; Instead\, he advocates a return to the ancient techniques of self-discipline exercised within mortal and finite life\, thus inaugurating his influential late turn towards Neo-Stoicism.
\nThis late turn epitomizes the minimalist postmodern ambition to &lsquo\;take care&rsquo\; of life as it is\, without either imposing excessive demands on it or luring it with false promises. The idea of such Neo-Stoic biopolitics is to submit human finite life to the law of all natural things: nature\, regulating the flow of life from birth to death\, appears as the ultimate lawgiver offering a model for self-control\, self-growth and self-preservation. The only answer to the original anarchy of human drives is the discipline of self-control\, offering a necessary &lsquo\;lawful&rsquo\; correction to their somewhat deficient &lsquo\;naturalness.&rsquo\;
\n\;In my lecture\, I would like to contextualise Foucault&rsquo\;s Neo-Stoic project\, and to sketch an alternative based on a critique of the nomotropic desire\, i.e. a tendency in human psyche to orient itself &lsquo\;according to the law.&rsquo\; The idea of nomotropism was introduced by Eric Santner in his study on Moses and the Mosaic Law\, but I want to expand its use and show that human psyche is predominantly nomotropic in response to its initial anarchy of drives: it seeks law\, order\, and disciplining structures in order to counteract the deficiencies and excesses of basic human instincts. From the point of view of psychoanalysis\, therefore\, modern biopolitics is a result of the nomotropic fixation on the legality of nature. In my critical approach to biopolitics\, I would like to show how we can still overcome the &lsquo\;biomorphic fixation&rsquo\; by venturing beyond nomotropism\, i.e. by trying to recover the lost &lsquo\;anarchic&rsquo\; dimension of the human psyche\, and &ndash\; in the words of Walter Benjamin &ndash\; achieve a &lsquo\;happy lawless life&rsquo\;.
ORGANIZER;CN=Mikolaj Slawkowski-Rode;CN=Ralph Weir ;CN=Przemys?aw Bursztyka;CN=Agata Lukomska;CN=Samuel Hughes;CN=Jonathan Price : METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR