Philosophies of Disability and the Global Pandemic

If you were away from your computer early in the New Year, you may have missed my previous post about the special issue of International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies on this theme that I guest edited. The issue, which is open access, includes my introduction to the issue and my article on philosophy of […]

CFP: Society Must Be Inoculated: COVID-19, Governance, Propaganda, UC-Irvine, May 20, 2022 (deadline: Mar. 11, 2022)

Since COVID-19’s first infection, the virus has mutated. Each expected virological mutation summons increased governmental and medical surveillance, received both positively and suspiciously by the public. The instituted state of exception was most aggressively diagnosed by the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben. Agamben, however,  is not alone in theorizing the pandemic. Thinkers like Slavoj Zizek, Jean-Luc […]

Philosophy and Structural Gaslighting About Disability

Philosophers generally do not regard critical examination of disability as suitable to research and teaching in social metaphysics and social epistemology; nor do they, generally, appreciate the critical importance of philosophy of disability but rather remain resolute that philosophical inquiry about disability is appropriately and adequately conducted in the established subfield of bioethics. Indeed, a […]

The Biopolitics of COVID-19

Learning From The Virus By Paul B. Preciado If Michel Foucault had survived AIDS in 1984 and had stayed alive until the invention of effective antiretroviral therapy, he would be ninety-three years old today. Would he have agreed to confine himself in his apartment on rue de Vaugirard in Paris? The first philosopher of history to […]

Biopolitics and Coronavirus, or Don't Forget Foucault (How Could We?)

An excerpt from the essay “Biopolitics and Coronavirus, or Don’t Forget Foucault” by Felipe Demetri: “What the coronavirus epidemic shows us is more the strength of Michel Foucault’s explanatory scheme than the current necro-thanatopolitical strain of interpretations. We all know that Foucault saw biopower as a series of events, from theoretical ones to concrete practices, […]

Biopower, Normalization, and Slippery Slopes

[This post previously appeared on Discrimination and Disadvantage. In an upcoming post, I will discuss how the subfield of bioethics has shaped Canadian philosophy and how the predominance of the subfield of bioethics in Canadian philosophy is intertwined with prestige bias. An earlier post on prestige bias in Canadian philosophy can be found here.] ____________________________________________________ […]

Is “The Right to Die” Racialized Biopolitics?

[This post originally appeared at Discrimination and Disadvantage. In one respect, the title of the post was redundant: biopolitics are always racialized.] _________________________________________________ My post earlier in the week drew attention to the imbrication of the sub-field of bioethics in the workings of biopower and neoliberal biopolitics. I noted how biopolitics has produced discussions in bioethics that […]

The Biopolitics of Bioethics

[This post originally appeared at Discrimination and Disadvantage.] In a chapter of my forthcoming book, I argue that (most of the) claims advanced in the sub-field of mainstream bioethics and even feminist bioethics rely upon an outdated conception of power that manifests in ideas about “choice,” “informed consent,” and “autonomy.” (Most) bioethicists assume what Foucault referred […]