Roberto Esposito's contribution within the Italian biopolitical movement

Abstract

Italian biopolitics has gained prominence in recent years. In this field, three authors stand out: Antonio Negri, Giorgio Agamben, and Roberto Esposito. The latter, to whom we dedicate some notes in this study, draws on a wide range of authors to support his theses concerning biopolitics. Unlike Giorgio Agamben and Antonio Negri, also exponents of the Italian biopolitical current in modern times, who restrict themselves to the fields of law and the humanities to develop their arguments, Esposito, in turn, goes beyond this. He adopts a category peculiar to the field of medicine, and not in a strictly legal sense—namely, immunity, a conditio sine qua non—to discuss modern Western politics. In any case, for this eminent thinker, modern politics is equivalent to the immune paradigm. Furthermore, we want to understand that the philosopher confronts the terms "biopolitics" and "immunity" using a unique hermeneutical perspective.

Key words: Italian biopolitics; Esposito; immunity.