A metáfora hobbesiana do corpo e o biopoder
Keywords:
natural body and body politic, body metaphor, biopower.Abstract
This article is an attempt to examine the merits of two statements by Giorgio Agamben regarding the role of the concept of body in Hobbes and its relationship with biopower. In order to do so, it will first examine the Hobbesian concepts of body, natural body and body politic, as presented in Elementa philosophiae, the author’s first philosophy. The transposition of these Hobbesian concepts to the domain of politics will then be analyzed. To this end, the organic metaphor of body politic constitutes a first step that extends itself to another metaphor, that of the original embodiment of the commonwealth: the Leviathan. The arguments used to oppose the Agambenian interpretation are based on the importance of two characteristics of the body politic: its artificiality and unity and the differentiation in its composition: the people and the crowd.
