Biopolitics, Eugenics, and State Racism in Ancient Philosophy | Mika Ojakangas

Main Grahn-Wilder of the ORT-project interviews Prof. Mika Ojakangas of the University of Jyväskylä in Finland in a talk about the origins of State Racism. It serves the same purpose as Slavery and the Limits of Democracy in the Early Republic, Leslie Alexander.

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“In episode 3, Professor Mika Ojakangas (University of Jyväskylä) discusses his book On the Greek Origins of Biopolitics (Routledge 2016). He traces the Foucauldian notion of biopolitics all the way back to the political philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, and analyses the long continuations of biopower, eugenics and state racism through Western history. Following Foucault, Ojakangas explains how state racism ultimately aims at regulating which individuals are physically and mentally fit and healthy enough for the society. Instead of thinking about Nazism as an exception in or external to Western political thought, he urges us to see how such ideologies as eugenics and the theory of degeneration are intertwined with our history from Antiquity to today.”