Life: A Modern Invention

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The word "biology" was first used to describe the scientific study of life in 1802, and as Davide Tarizzo demonstrates, our understanding of what being alive means is an equally recent invention. Circumventing tired debates about the validity of science and the truth of Darwinian evolution, Tarizzo instead envisions a profound paradigm shift in philosophical and scientific concepts of biological life.

Reviews

"The translation of Italian philosopher Davide Tarizzos Life is a cause for celebration. Tarizzo goes where others havent in order to ask the following question: when did we actually become alive His answer is deeply unsettling. Part political philosophy, part genealogy of aliveness, part faithfully radical account of Darwinian evolution, Tarizzo has written a vertiginous reflection on what it truly means to be savagely alivein other words, biopolitics 2.0. Not to be missed."Timothy Campbell, Cornell University

"In this outstanding book, the biological paradigm of modern life is traced back, probably for the first time, to its philosophical and metaphysical sources. By connecting Darwin's dangerous idea with those of Kant's and Schelling's, Davide Tarizzo raises the most challenging questions about our future of living beings."Roberto Esposito, author of Bos: Biopolitics and Philosophy

Author Bio

Davide Tarizzo is assistant professor of moral philosophy at the University of Salerno.

Mark William Epstein has translated numerous books, including Lars-Henrik Olsens Tracks and Signs of the Animals and Birds of Britain and Europe and Luca Pelitis Statistical Mechanics in a Nutshell.