scholarly journals BIOPOLITICS AND BIOPOWER: THE ESSENCE OF CONCEPTS IN SOCIAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL DIMENSIONS

2021 ◽  
pp. 19-29
Author(s):  
Iryna Shapovalova
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Human Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Dynamic Phenomenon ◽  
Bourgeois Society ◽  
Collège De France ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Xix Century

The first definition of biopolitics M. Foucault offered in a series of his lectures on "It is necessary to protect society", which he gave to students at the Collège de France in 1975-1976. Under biopolitics, the scientist understood "a set of processes that include the proportion of births and deaths, the level of reproduction, population growth" [11, p. 257]. It should be noted that in M. Foucault's concept, biopolitics is meaningfully connected with biopower. Central to the concept of biopolitics (biopower) is the state, which provides the conditions for the reproduction of the population, supports its livelihoods and pursues policies in the health care system. Further conceptualization of the phenomena of biopolitics and biopower is due to the research efforts of J. Agamben, A. Negri and many other scientists. According to scholars, the power constructs of bourgeois society and capitalist relations of the late eighteenth century. - early XIX century ensured the socialization of the human body as a labor force and an element of the production process. Society's control over man began to be exercised not only through consciousness, ideology, "but also in the body and with the body." The human body has come to be seen as a biopolitical reality, and medicine with its technology as a political strategy. It should be noted that biopolitics (biopower) is a unique and extremely dynamic phenomenon that is undergoing constant transformation, which causes a constant expansion of the semantic range of biopolitics and biopower in modern social and philosophical discourse.

Sensitive limit

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mechthild Fend
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Human Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
French Art ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter focuses on the significance of skin in neoclassical art and aesthetics. The most distinctive features of neoclassicism - an emphasis on the contour and a preference for more finished surfaces - are understood as elements crucial for the visual formation and understanding of the human body, its surface and borderlines. The culture of neoclassicism, extending well beyond the realm of art and art discourse, was generally characterised by a heightened concern with the shaping of the body and the safeguarding of its boundaries. Skin as the body's physical demarcation, was increasingly perceived not merely as an envelope and organ, but as the boundary of the self. The chapter considers the new attention to skin and contour in late eighteenth-century French art discourse, in particular in Watelet's and Levesque's Dictionnaire des beaux-arts. It equally looks at the discussion of membranes and the definition of skin as ‘sensitive limit‘ in the works of anatomist Xavier Bichat and analyses a set of portraits by Jacques-Louis David painted in the aftermath of the French Revolution.

Maiden Voyage

Nuncius ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-49
Author(s):  
Dario De Santis
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Microscopic Investigation ◽  
The Body ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
Scientific Debate

AbstractThe scientific debate which developed during the eighteenth century, proposed and diffused new theories on the generation not only within the scientific community. Microscopic investigation and various experimental campaigns fostered daring models attempting to unveil the natural phenomena from which life originates. Besides the famous scientific and philosophical works that marked the age, in the second part of the century two pamphlets appeared that well represent the importance of the querelle about embryological systems defining the concept of generation as a voyage within the human body. Lucina sine concubitu and Juno abortans, respectively published in England and in Germany between 1750 and 1760, narrate the odd and imaginary adventures of two doctors who are trying to interrupt and modify the embryos' journey towards the body of the mother.

Bodily Dasein and Chinese Script Components

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwan Tze-wan
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
Chinese Script ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Constitutive Principle ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractIn the Shuowen, one of the earliest comprehensive character dictionaries of ancient China, when discussing where the Chinese characters derive their structural components, Xu Shen proposed the dual constitutive principle of “adopting proximally from the human body, and distally from things around.” This dual emphasis of “body” and “things around” corresponds largely to the phenomenological issues of body or corporeality on the one hand, and lifeworld on the other. If we borrow Heidegger’s definition of Dasein as Being-in-the world, we can easily arrive at a reformulation of Xu Shen’s constitutive principle of the Chinese script as one that concerns “bodily Dasein.” By looking into various examples of script tokens we can further elaborate on how the Chinese make use not only of the body in general but various body parts, and how they differentiate their life world into material nature, living things, and a multifaceted world of equipment in forming a core basis of Chinese characters/components, upon which further symbolic manipulation such as “indication”, “phonetic borrowing”, semantic combination, and “annotative derivation”, etc. can be based. Finally, examples will be cited to show how in the Chinese scripts the human body (and its parts) might interact with other’s bodies (and their parts) or with “things around” (whether nature, living creatures, or artifacts) in various ways to cover the social, environmental, ritual, technical, economical, and even intellectual aspects of human experience. Bodily Dasein, so to speak, provides us with a new perspective of understanding and appreciating the entire scope of the Chinese script.

scholarly journals BIOLOGICAL AGE AS A METHOD FOR ESTIMATING HEALTH LEVEL UNDER ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS (LITERATURE REVIEW)

2019 ◽  
Vol 98 (7) ◽  
pp. 761-765 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. I. Prokhorov ◽  
V. I. Dontsov ◽  
Vyacheslav N. Krutko ◽  
T. M. Khodykina
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Quantitative Assessment ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
The Body ◽  
Biological Age ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Biomarkers Of Aging ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Definition Of

The widespread formation of unfavorable environmental, the swiftness of modern life with large information and psycho-emotional loads and extremely natural and climatic cataclysms, as well as harmful addictions and wrong way of life of modern human, lead to the development of stress and disruption of the mechanisms of adaptation of the human body and its accelerated wear. This stimulates the development of research on the creation of new methods of integrated assessment of health and quantitative assessment of the aging processes of the body systems and the whole body, as well as the possibilities of new methods of risk assessment of climatic and environmentally related pathological and age-related diseases. The aim of the work was to consider the methodology of quantitative assessment of individual health and the rate of aging of the human body on the basis of the system index of Biological age (BA); description of its essence and structure, requirements for tests - biomarkers of aging used as the index of BA, definition of possibilities and scope of application of the BA method in modern practice of Biomedicine. The use of modern methods of scientific analysis - a systematic approach to the analysis of the processes of human aging and determine its quantitative side - the value of BA, allows a reasonable approach to the choice of the number of BM, to take into account their information content and precision, and the cost of diagnostics and availability for different users, to take into account the specific objectives of the researcher. The use of the index-partial BA allows individual approaching the choice of biomarkers and create personalized panels for the definition of BA programs for the prevention of aging in personalized preventive medicine. The complexity of the content and calculation of indices of BA requires automation and the use of methods of modern computer science and computer calculations and programs. For this purpose, we have created special computer software for diagnosing aging by calculating the BA indices with the possibility of choosing BM and automatic calculation of indicators and conclusions.

HUMAN BODY COMPOSITION

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1962 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 476-476
Author(s):  
◽  
Richard W. Blumberg ◽  
Gilbert B. Forbes ◽  
Donald Fraser ◽  
Arild E. Hansen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Composition ◽  
Performance Studies ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Functional Performance ◽  
The Body ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Indirect Measure ◽  
Nutritional Science ◽  
Significant Step ◽  
Definition Of

Although it is self-evident that the study of human nutrition has as its goal the optimal nutrition of man, the nutritional status of the body best suited to optimal performance, i.e., optimal nutrition, has unfortunately not yet been satisfactorily defined. Body composition of animals may be measured by direct chemical analysis and correlated with dietary intake and with the various aspects of performance; studies of body composition of living man, on the other hand, must rely on indirect measure ments. The following two reports, which give an account of the current status of the attack on the difficult task of measuring body composition in living man, are sponsored by the Committee on Nutrition to call attention to the resurgence of effort in this field during recent years. A fuller knowledge of the gross composition of the human body and its relation to preceding diet will constitute a significant step towards realization of the ultimate goal of nutritional science. Even then, a particular body composition will be of importance primarily in terms of functional performance. The availability of newer techniques should do much to stimulate physicians and nutritionists in defining body composition as an essential step in arriving at a more exact definition of optimal nutrition.

TALL HISTORIES: HEIGHT AND GEORGIAN MASCULINITIES

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 79-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew McCormack
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Human Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Health And Nutrition ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

ABSTRACTHeight is rarely taken seriously by historians. Demographic and archaeological studies tend to explore height as a symptom of health and nutrition, rather than in its own right, and cultural studies of the human body barely study it at all. Its absence from the history of gender is surprising, given that it has historically been discussed within a highly gendered moral language. This paper therefore explores height through the lens of masculinity and focuses on the eighteenth century, when height took on a peculiar cultural significance in Britain. On the one hand, height could be associated with social status, political power and ‘polite’ refinement. On the other, it could connote ambition, militarism, despotism, foreignness and even castration. The article explores these themes through a case-study of John Montagu, earl of Sandwich, who was famously tall and was frequently caricatured as such. As well as exploring representations of the body, the paper also considers corporeal experiences and biometric realities of male height. It argues that histories of masculinity should study both representations of gender and their physical manifestations.

Origins of a Misunderstanding: the Qianlong Emperor's Embargo on Rhubarb Exports to Russia, the Scenario and its Consequences

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chang Che-Chia ◽  
Penelope Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
The Body ◽  
Specific Method ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
The West ◽  
Opium War ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth

This paper casts light on the myth, current in China before the Opium War, that the Europeans could not survive without rhubarb. The myth has its roots in differences between pharmaceutical theories and material culture in the Chinese and Western traditions. In China, rhubarb was considered a drastic purgative, indicated only in case of grave illness. In the West, in consequence of a specific method of processing, it was regarded as a mild and gentle drug, albeit wonderfully effective in ridding the body of superfluous humoral substances. Thus the same herb acquired completely different images in China and in the West. An important factor that fostered the myth was the Russian government's termination of the rhubarb monopoly in the prelude to the Sino-Russian border conflict in the late eighteenth century. This gave rise to increased smuggling, which was misinterpreted in China as evidence that Russia stood in desperate need of rhubarb. When the border conflict came to an end in 1792, Russia's unusually submissive attitude tended to confirm this misapprehension. This article not only explains why the Qjng government adopted an embargo on rhubarb; it also shows how differing pharmaceutical views influenced international affairs.

scholarly journals The Ethics of Resistance

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-43
Author(s):  
Jack Robert Coopey ◽  
Jack Coopey
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Lecture Hall ◽  
Collège De France ◽  
New Form ◽  
Knowledge Form ◽  
Definition Of

The issues of sovereignty and territory can be discussed through ethics. Foucault's College de France lectures (1970-1984) cover such concepts as governmentality and biopolitics that influenced sovereign states, especially in regards to modernity of the eighteenth century. Foucault performs analyses of how discourses through power-knowledge form structures that define an 'Other' in terms of madness, reason and sexuality. This paper shall argue that these 'molar' questions of states are underpinned by a 'molecular' question of ethics, in which Foucault attempts to practice a new form of ethics, thereby subverting the sovereignty in the lecture hall in which he lectured in, and the scholars writing years later. Foucault argues that modernity has changed the nature of sovereignty and territory. Therefore, these questions are not only a question of ethics, but one bound up by the question of modernity and how it has transformed the eighteenth-century conception. The idea that Foucault uses is the definition of ethics, and thus he uses this as an analogy to describe how sovereignties and territories interact. In conclusion, Foucault views sovereignty and territory as philosophical spaces instead of physical or geographical ones, and that a new ethics of resistance is needed to combat neo-liberal bureaucracy.

Medical Men, Negligent Mothers, and Malleable Children

2019 ◽  
pp. 25-54
Author(s):  
Mary Hatfield
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Medical Intervention ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Medical Professionals ◽  
Male Body ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter considers the medicalization of childhood from the late eighteenth century into the 1840s. What we might now term a ‘biological’ definition of childhood is seen first in late eighteenth-century medical intervention into the care of infants. These texts are part of a wider ‘rationalization’ of childhood which emerged in scientific and child-rearing genres. The influence in Ireland of John Locke, William Buchan, and the Edgeworths’ contributed to a reformulation of childhood as a period of enormous intellectual and physical malleability. As the matter of children’s health shifted from the female domain to the business of men, medical professionals defined the child body in opposition to the adult male body. Elite women were criticized for coddling their children excessively, while the lower classes were characterized as neglectful and uncaring. By the mid-nineteenth century, objective standards of growth were deployed as mechanisms for governing parental as much as childhood behaviour.

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