The “disappearance of man” as epistemic-political transformation: sovereignty, discipline and government of life

Abstract

Many indications would point to the realization of the premonition with which Foucault closed The order of things: the figure of “the man” would be erasing itself from our plexus of historical meanings. Added to the advance of trends such as new biotechnological interventions, the renewal of the parameters of capital accumulation and the codification of the representations of the living, this would mean the end of the enlightened project and would confront us with the challenge of composing a new base that allows us to rethink social and intersubjective ties. This article proposes to analyze some of the implications that this “disappearance of man” would suppose regarding the exercise of sovereignty, the disciplinarization of the productive force and the government of life.