Had they read Heidegger as they ought to have done, Foucault and Agamben would have understood that there was nothing new in “modernity,” that the definition of man as a rational animal and zōon politikon had already founded the biopolitical program. “I am not saying that there is no new ‘bio-power,’” writes Derrida, “I am suggesting that ‘bio-power’ itself is not new. There are incredible novelties in bio-power, but bio-power or zoo-power are not new.”

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