Blencowe Claire
University of Bristol, UK.
Hist Human Sci. 2010;23(5):113-30. doi: 10.1177/0952695110375762.
This article revisits Arendt's and Foucault's converging accounts of modern (bio)politics and the entry of biological life into politics. Agamben's influential account of these ideas is rejected as a misrepresentation both because it de-historicizes biological/organic life and because it occludes the positivity of that life and thus the discursive appeal and performative force of biopolitics. Through attention to the genealogy of Arendt's and Foucault's own ideas we will see that the major point of convergence in their thinking is their insistence upon understanding biological thinking from the inside, in terms of its positivity. Agamben's assessment of modern politics is closer to Arendt's than it is to Foucault's and this marks a fascinating point of disagreement between Arendt and Foucault. Whereas Arendt sees the normalizing force of modern society as being in total opposition to individuality, Foucault posits totalization and individuation as processes of normation, which casts a light upon the relative import they place upon politics and ethics.
本文重新审视了阿伦特和福柯关于现代（生物）政治以及生物生命进入政治领域的趋同观点。阿甘本对这些观点的有影响力的阐释被驳斥为一种歪曲，这既是因为它使生物/有机生命脱离了历史，也是因为它掩盖了那种生命的积极性，从而也掩盖了生命政治的话语吸引力和 performative 力量。通过关注阿伦特和福柯自身思想的谱系，我们将看到，他们思想中的主要趋同点在于，他们坚持从内部、就其积极性来理解生物性思维。阿甘本对现代政治的评估与阿伦特的更为接近，而不是与福柯的接近，这标志着阿伦特和福柯之间一个引人入胜的分歧点。阿伦特认为现代社会的规范化力量与个性完全对立，而福柯则将总体化和个体化视为规范化的过程，这揭示了他们对政治和伦理的相对重视程度。 （注：“performative force”这里不太明确准确意思，暂保留英文，可根据实际情况进一步调整完善译文）
