Achille Mbembe vs. Michel Foucault

In this episode, I highlight the differences between Achille Mbembe's notion of necropolitics and Michel Foucault's notion of biopolitics.
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[@Siarczynka]

hi! new subscriber here! I'm preparing for my interview for a PhD program and your videos just really help me to structure my knowledge on biopolitics & biopower which will be my methodological tools in my future research (fingers crossed) so huge thank you! greetings from Poland!

[@simonherckens5509]

Interesting, in my introduction anthropology class we talked about the influence of Foucault on Mbembe

[@BorisBirkenbaum]

What do these two people have to do with anthropology?

[@xboofman3081]

@@BorisBirkenbaum a lot lol anthropology isnt just bones n shit also social sciences

[@BorisBirkenbaum]

@@xboofman3081 yeah but what has the fraud Foucault have to do with this? It seems more like a retarded thing only a woke prof would do.

[@simonherckens5509]

@@BorisBirkenbaum Yes like @xboofman3081 said. At some point in the semester the lessons were about the 'postcolonial turn' in anthropology, for which you need to know a little about postcolonial theory. And Foucault just came up because of his influence on some postcolonial theorists like f.e. Edward Said or in this instance Mbembe.

[@thomaslin6239]

Hi David! Love the video :)!

[@ev_solou9341]

I always thought necropolitics came packaged within biopolitics and is not an extension of it. If one "controlled" population is to be favored over another for the sake of power, then it follows that death would be a valid tactic. Or did Foucault simply never mention this?

[@nechayev3316]

At least in the History of Sexuality Vol 1 Foucault (I have the Finnish version of the book) says: There is a right to kill people who pose a biological threat. And further, in the lecture Society Must be Defended he explains how State racism tries to defend the social heritage that it wants to keep "pure", i.e it wants to rid biological threats. So yes, death would be a valid tactic for "biological threats" and one's that deviate from the norm.

[@vudoomunkyfut]

Mbembe is doing more than stating what seems to be the "other side" of biopolitics. He's addressing the ontological turn that Black thought begins taking up. It's not just deciding who dies, but who becomes death corporealized. This has other implications rather than structural.

[@nicolebellamy7320]

I love you. I couldn't write my dissertation without you

[@hagaivdh]

Thanks!!! 🙏🏼

[@amoruribe3872]

Hello, this could be related to the state of exception of Agamben, i think biopolitics and necropolitics are different aspects of the sovereign power in its capacity of administrate population. I wish you could make a video of homo sacer in the near future. love your chanel it's helped me to understad some topics for my dissertation, particulary Fanon, thaks you so much.

[@chindico]

Thanks!

[@TheoryPhilosophy]

Thank YOU!

[@jakecarlo9950]

…or what it means to have ‘mental health’ ! Thanks for the post.

[@30kova]

Sorry i am late… But found this very very interesting statement. Franco Berardi is saying that D&G’s What is filosophy was in a way/late reaction for Baudrillard’s sooo old notions: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bV6ZZ6Sprb10rtU Those Desire things were a bit ridiculous… Baudrillard in Fragments interwiev (2001): there are times when all dives (year 68-)

[@AllinOne-hi8fu]

What is Bio-power?

[@Firmus777]

Not only am I more on Foucault's side in this the way you present their ideas, but I think there are much more radical implications in Foucault that were further developed that thinker who can be characterized as postmodernist. It's not simply that we are tricked into thinking that other forms of desire our our own, it's that they actually are our own and they are used to oppress us. You do actually want to click on that add. You have the freedom to pursue that desire. And this is used to oppress you. Mbembe doesn't realize that it is precisely the freedom he pursues that oppresses people. If you give people the freedom to choose, they are going to fumble and not be free. If people were not free, they would be free, but they are so they are not.

[@caelastraz1112]

I do not believe that Mbembe introduces something that is not in Foucault; instead, I think he repeats the notions of state racism as explained by Foucault in the last lecture of Society must be defended. Indeed, he may do it more clearly and explicitly, but the concept is already there. Foucault, in Society must be defended notes that racism is 'What in fact is racism? It is primarily a way of introducing a break into the domain of life that is under power's control: the break between what must live and what must die.' (p. 254), which does seem to be what is very much underlying Mbembe's view on the topic. Indeed, he does it more explicitly and clearly, but I do believe that the basis is already in that lecture, even beyond the single quote I mentioned.

[@sashafury2422]

OK, but what about Foucault vs. that Tele on the wall! :p

[@kazzz2765]

is it even a tele if it has two humbuckers on?

[@sashafury2422]

@@kazzz2765 This is definitely a 'Ship of Theseus' question.

[@chrismuratore4451]

Dont forget it has 24 frets too.

[@kimcosmos]

Neo liberalism isn't finished yet. Luxury automated AI capitalism likes proper compliant wage slaves. But if its cheaper to build gated compounds and send work overseas and militarise the police instead they do. Feudal territory control is the cheapest way to extract land based resources. Eg mining, water and sunlight (beef). Other capital intensive chokepoint industries too, like semiconductor plant manufacturing by the Dutch etc. And of course banking and untaxed trusts. But for the rest.. neoliberalism is pretty cheap

[@____toomuch____]

again you pick two terrible thinkers !? foucault is a joke and if you cite him yr a joke, and mbembe doesnt even read what he cites, he just includes it fr social capital. His description of D&G's war machine is laughable

[@Liliquan]

Please go get a life.

[@kehana2908]

tf since when was foucault a joke? and especially in comparison to D&G? like i'd understand if you said that D&G were a joke and i'd assume it's just kinda one of those "incomprehensible=bad" analytic things, but saying foucault was a joke and that D&G are serious is odd. not to say that D&G were bad, of course.

[@____toomuch____]

@@kehana2908 foucault is not taken seriously, especially outside of United States academia. I know they were colleagues but D&G's scholarship is given way more credence as it should. Why cite foucault when he is often just giving a poor man's version of other scholarship

[@kehana2908]

@@____toomuch____ i mean... i see what you're saying and i don't disagree, but there are certainly moments where foucault is distinctly original and interesting.

[@jessiegivi]

Hi david, it seems that you’re losing weight. Hope you’re okay… always find time to rest :)

[@rivir]

It’s not nice to comment on other peoples weight (in my opinion)

[@AllinOne-hi8fu]

What is Bio-power?