Essay Sample on Main Themes and Problems in Foucault, Davis, and Agamben

Introduction

Bare life refers to the conception of life whereby the sheer biological fact about life is given the priority over how general life is lived. According to the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben after his observation about how the ancient Greeks defined life, he said that bare life is the reduction of life as lived by the individual (Allen, 99). The ancient Greek defined life in two different words: "bios," which means how life is lived and "Zoe," which states the biological fact of life. Agamben said that sovereign power is undoubtedly situated within and above the law (Allen, 120). Agamben argued that life could not be brought under the rule of law and also he added that man was born to live. Law tends to focus on a pleasant experience. However, a good life comes from a transformation of bare life. This also means that bare life is both inside and outside of the law. When bare life and political life are combined, the boundaries are hard to understand

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Agamben states that the idea of bare life and recognized life was brought by sovereignty (Allen, 125). Bare life can be used to refer to people who are not subjected to legal and political representation. For Agamben, the emergence of the technology of biopower did not signify a break in the history of western politics but rather the expansion of the existing biopolitical imperative of the state. The Agamben's notion that the camp is virtually everywhere is right; this is because he explained the Camp as the structure through which the state of exception is typically realized.

Foucault focused on the theory of biopolitics in which he states that human life has been the target of the organizational power of the state. According to Foucault, he stated that biopower is different from sovereign power in that the new technology of power has to qualify, appraise, hierarchize, and measure rather than the display itself in its murderous splendor (Minca, 12). He also stated that based on the constitution of bare life as the threshold of the political order, sovereign power is itself biopolitical. Foucault added that the system which the prison uses is not the child of law but norms. Foucault went further and said that the reason why the prison system has existed up to date is that it is being supported by a political system which its main aim is to make the accumulation of people both a docile and a useful process.

During a debate in parliament in 1980, Foucault explained that his mission on the punishment and discipline was not to paint the picture of criminality but rather he wanted to be aware of how certain choices were made (Minca, 19). Foucault decided to explore the technologies of modern power, and he started with the winding and the complex evolution of prisons; this was when he got involved with the prisons information group. This idea prompted him to come up with several questions about the evolvement of prisons: he asked why imprisonment and detention were preferred, yet the system was not stable? The second question is why prison institutions appeared suddenly in the 18th century with no theoretical justification. The idea that the prison is virtually extended to society is very accurate because through the coercive theory Foucault shows the classic histories behind imprisonment and punishment where prison institution is a project that aims to transform people's lives.

According to Davis theory on the prison industrial complex, he says that the term is used to describe how the government and industries interest uses surveillance, imprisonment and policing as solutions to social, economic and political problems (Gordon, Avery, and Angela 26). He explained that prisons do no eliminate the problem, but rather it disappears human beings. And it affects the poor and immigrants. Davis explains that imprisonment is one of the social problems that face people who languish in poverty (Gordon, Avery, and Angela 42). She further described it in three categories: the color of imprisonment; it states that almost two million people are currently locked in the jails and prisons and approximately 70% are people of color, and it consists of black women and Native Americans (Gordon, Avery, and Angela 58). Profiting from prisoners; she explained that prisons are more critical in the US; this is because of the profit potential it has. In my opinion, I support Davis idea that prison industrial complex is the continuation of slavery because with the increase of prisons communities individuals don't feel safe at all because the needs of the individuals who have experience harm are not met.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Agamben's work explored the relationship between a sovereign state and the politically marginalized that consisted of the prisoners of war and refugees. In today's global political climate Agamben's critic which is based on the increasing deployment of the state of exception. It explains that the declaration of the state of emergency that legitimizes the sovereign state's suspension of law for the public goods as a dominant paradigm for governing has a special power.

Works Cited

Allen, Amy. The power of feminist theory. Routledge, 2018: 1-202

Gordon, Avery, and Angela Davis. Keeping good time: Reflections on knowledge, power and people. Routledge, 2015: 1-99

Minca, Claudio. "Geographies of the camp." Political Geography 49 (2015): 1-83.