Introduction: Life: Who Cares?

How can we account for the fact that, in the last twenty years at least, “life” has become a privileged category with which the humanities in general, and philosophy in particular, have approached virtually all epis- temological, political, ethical and even ontological problems? And what kind of history does the concept of “life” have, both inside and outside the humanities? Our goal, in this brief introduction, is to mention some of the reasons why, according to us, we seem to have reached a moment in history where every distinction and opposition is made no longer in rela- tion to life, but within it, and where life is a problem inextricably theoreti- cal and practical, ontological and political. These reasons are, no doubt, contingent, and our aim is not to reconstruct a grand narrative regarding the meaning and direction of that phenomenon. Rather, we wish to iden- tify some of the signs that allow us to recognize it as a key development, and open the critical space within which it is discussed in the various chapters of this volume.