The State as a Form of Life: A Genealogy of Biopolitics in the Discourse on the Biology of the State.

  • Published In: Journal of the History of Ideas, 2025, v. 86, n. 2. P. 263 1 of 3

  • Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Ratajczak, Mikołaj 3 of 3

Abstract

This article delineates the genealogy of "biopolitics" in the discourse on "biology of the state." It focuses on the works by Rudolf Kjellén, Jakob von Uexküll, and Oscar Hertwig but situates them in the context of the idea of the state's biology popular in the 1920s and 1930s in Germany. The reconstruction of the discourse constitutes a commentary on Foucault's work on the genealogy of biopolitics. Just as biopolitics aimed at controlling the "population" as a quasi-naturalistic object, so did the discourse of the state's biology conceive of the state as an object of a pseudo-science modeled on natural sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional Information

  • Source:Journal of the History of Ideas. 2025/04, Vol. 86, Issue 2, p263
  • Document Type:Article
  • Subject Area:Literature and Writing
  • Publication Date:2025
  • ISSN:0022-5037
  • DOI:10.1353/jhi.2025.a959034
  • Accession Number:184842932
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