Philosophy, Biopolitics, and the Virus: The Elision of an Alternative

The pandemic was characterized by a monolithic approach, with the virus being seen as everywhere and a threat to all. Three moments within the pandemic were conceived in this way: the Science, non-pharmaceutical interventions, and the one sole remedy. Dissent immediately identifies you as a friend of the virus, but if all of these cases have been revealing their counterproductivity, what are we to make of the elision of alternatives?

Format: Hardback
Length: 268 pages
Publication date: 12 September 2023
Publisher: Lexington Books

The pandemic was characterized by a sense of totality and undiscriminating nature, with the virus being present everywhere and posing a threat to all. In his book, "Philosophy, Biopolitics, and the Virus: The Elision of an Alternative," Michael Lewis identifies three moments within the pandemic that were conceived in a monolithic way: (1) "The Science," which had to be unanimous and sovereign to have us follow it; (2) "non-pharmaceutical interventions," which were regarded as the only possible response without which death and disease would "run riot"; and (3) the one sole remedy that could bring about the promised end of the restrictions, to the exclusion of every other conception of medicine, treatment, and care. In each case of seeming universality, dissent immediately identifies you as a friend of the virus. However, if all of these cases have been revealing their counterproductivity ever since, what are we to make of the elision of alternatives? Is it part of a more general tendency to thrust the questioning of hegemonic notions to the margins of respectable discourse, inhabited solely by the mad, bad, and dangerous to know?

Weight: 553g
Dimension: 239 x 157 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781666923780