The philosopher and the pandemic one year later: between an invented epidemic and the controversial defense of life

Abstract

From the very beginning, Giorgio Agamben has been writing about the pandemic that devastates the world since the start of 2020, explaining, while doing so, its political and ethical effects. As a consequence, his ideas have caused an international controversy created both by writers that are short-sighted and unaware of his work as a whole and writers which are filled with genuine indignation. Indeed, we understand that Agamben is currently in a situation divided by the narrative of an epidemic supposedly imagined and the controversial protection of life and the elements that allow it to be considered dignified. That being the case, this paper aims to cast a light on Agamben’s conceptualizations, especially those which have been recently published, connecting them with the main relevant aspects of his philosophical project. Accordingly, this work is organized around four central ideas: the protection of life and liberty, the use of the state of exception as a technique of domination, the definitive medicalization of human life, and the pereshment of human relations as a result of the current politics.