A3 Book section, Chapters in research books
Bene vivere politice : On the (Meta)biopolitics of “Happiness” (2022)

Backman, J. (2022). Bene vivere politice : On the (Meta)biopolitics of “Happiness”. In J. Backman, & A. Cimino (Eds.), Biopolitics and Ancient Thought (pp. 126-144). Oxford University Press. Classics in Theory. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192847102.003.0007

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Backman, Jussi

Parent publication: Biopolitics and Ancient Thought

Parent publication editors: Backman, Jussi; Cimino, Antonio

ISBN: 978-0-19-284710-2

eISBN: 978-0-19-193951-8

Journal or series: Classics in Theory

Publication year: 2022

Pages range: 126-144

Number of pages in the book: 240

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Place of Publication: Oxford

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192847102.003.0007

Publication open access: Not open

Publication channel open access: 

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/80457

Abstract

This chapter approaches the question of biopolitics in ancient political thought looking not at specific political techniques but at notions of the final aim of the political community. It argues that the “happiness” (eudaimonia, beatitudo) that constitutes the greatest human good in the tradition from Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas is not a “biopolitical” ideal, but rather a metabiopolitical one, consisting in a contemplative activity situated above and beyond the biological and the political. It is only with Thomas Hobbes that civic happiness becomes “biopolitically” identified with simple survival; for modernity, as Hannah Arendt puts it, mere being alive becomes the greatest human good, and happiness is understood as a subjective “quality of life.” In both models, the political realm is a means to an end. Arendt draws our attention to a neglected third alternative to both the classical/metabiopolitical and the modern/biopolitical ideals: “public happiness” consisting in political participation itself.

Keywords: biopolitics; happiness; good; good life; quality of life; political participation; ancient philosophy; Medieval philosophy; political philosophy

Free keywords: Aristotle; Thomas Aquinas; Hobbes, Thomas; Arendt, Hannah; Foucault, Michel; Ojakangas, Mika; biopolitics; metabiopolitics; happiness; supreme good

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Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2022

JUFO rating: 3