Reification of life-time
towards a phenomenological critique of biocapitalism
pp. 447-468
Abstract
The article discusses the specifc reifcation of lived bodiliness (Leiblichkeit) in the dispositif of supermodern biotechnologies, biocapitalism, and biopower. The foundations of this reifcation are identifed in the separation of the classical modern unity of life and labor, i.e., in directing capital investment not so much towards the productivity of human labor as towards the productivity of biological life itself and the potentiality to extract so-called “biologically gained time” (Petra Gehring). But whose is the life that incorporates biologically gained time? The answer to this question is explicitly sought along the boundaries of the thinkable for Marx and Husserl, but also implicitly through a background problematic, namely: the idea of a non-reifable generative time, stemming from the fundamental fact of simultaneous lived experience of non-simultaneous lives, and the reciprocal exchange of gifts of time.
Publication details
Published in:
Jurga Saulius, Kavoulakos Konstantinos (2021) Reification. Metodo 9 (2).
Pages: 447-468
Full citation:
Sabeva Svetlana (2021) „Reification of life-time: towards a phenomenological critique of biocapitalism“. Metodo 9 (2), 447–468.