Biopolitics and living individualization: ethics in the times of biotechnology

The article explores the consequences of the development of biotechnologies for the field of bioethics through two fundamental concepts: the biopolitics of Michel Foucault and the individualization of Gilbert Simondon. Understanding of the living in relation with the artificial through cybernetic mo...

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Main Author: Pablo Esteban Rodríguez
Format: Article
Language:Spanish
Published: Universidad El Bosque 2016-07-01
Series:Revista Colombiana de Bioética
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revistas.unbosque.edu.co/index.php/RCB/article/view/1927/1515
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author Pablo Esteban Rodríguez
author_facet Pablo Esteban Rodríguez
author_sort Pablo Esteban Rodríguez
collection DOAJ
description The article explores the consequences of the development of biotechnologies for the field of bioethics through two fundamental concepts: the biopolitics of Michel Foucault and the individualization of Gilbert Simondon. Understanding of the living in relation with the artificial through cybernetic models transformed, around the 20th century, what is understood today by person, body, and life. This change is made evident on a scientific level, in the principles of molecular biology, as well as at a social level, in a conjunction of new practices related with health. Both levels converge in the notion of molecular biopolitics (Paul Rabinow-Nikolas Rose), whose characteristics were anticipated in the years ’50 by the Simondonian conception of the succession of individualizations: physical, living, psycho-collective, and technical. This work argues that: 1) it is not possible to understand innovation of the biotechnologies without recurring to the biopolitical perspective; and 2) the current crisis of the notion of the individual should be faced proposing an ethics, a bioethics inspired in Simon-don, which renounces the appeal to universal categories.
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spelling doaj.art-6039ef04db1346f0bff26c202f695b6b2022-12-21T21:09:28ZspaUniversidad El BosqueRevista Colombiana de Bioética1900-68962590-94522016-07-011124860https://doi.org/10.18270/rcb.v11i2.1927Biopolitics and living individualization: ethics in the times of biotechnologyPablo Esteban Rodríguez0Universidad de Buenos AiresThe article explores the consequences of the development of biotechnologies for the field of bioethics through two fundamental concepts: the biopolitics of Michel Foucault and the individualization of Gilbert Simondon. Understanding of the living in relation with the artificial through cybernetic models transformed, around the 20th century, what is understood today by person, body, and life. This change is made evident on a scientific level, in the principles of molecular biology, as well as at a social level, in a conjunction of new practices related with health. Both levels converge in the notion of molecular biopolitics (Paul Rabinow-Nikolas Rose), whose characteristics were anticipated in the years ’50 by the Simondonian conception of the succession of individualizations: physical, living, psycho-collective, and technical. This work argues that: 1) it is not possible to understand innovation of the biotechnologies without recurring to the biopolitical perspective; and 2) the current crisis of the notion of the individual should be faced proposing an ethics, a bioethics inspired in Simon-don, which renounces the appeal to universal categories.https://revistas.unbosque.edu.co/index.php/RCB/article/view/1927/1515bioethicsbiotechnologyindividualsocial livecybernetics
spellingShingle Pablo Esteban Rodríguez
Biopolitics and living individualization: ethics in the times of biotechnology
Revista Colombiana de Bioética
bioethics
biotechnology
individual
social live
cybernetics
title Biopolitics and living individualization: ethics in the times of biotechnology
title_full Biopolitics and living individualization: ethics in the times of biotechnology
title_fullStr Biopolitics and living individualization: ethics in the times of biotechnology
title_full_unstemmed Biopolitics and living individualization: ethics in the times of biotechnology
title_short Biopolitics and living individualization: ethics in the times of biotechnology
title_sort biopolitics and living individualization ethics in the times of biotechnology
topic bioethics
biotechnology
individual
social live
cybernetics
url https://revistas.unbosque.edu.co/index.php/RCB/article/view/1927/1515
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