Disposable Groups and the Ontological Turn: Judith Butler and Giorgio Agamben

Facing potential political threats in the twentieth-first century, Judith Butler and Giorgio Agamben, two prominent bio-political critics, both pay special attention to disposable population, but the way they deal with the issue of suffering and vulnerable groups is disparate. On the one hand, Butler endeavors to stress that everyone is interdependent and shared vulnerability, not alienated, through examples of sufferers and victims. Although her analysis of suffering easily causes ethical concerns on shared human vulnerability, the opportunity to break existing prejudicial structure is still limited. On the other hand, Agamben argues that the witnessing suffering is unbearable and the essence of life should be survival, particular in the process from speaking being to living being. His approach emphasizes more on how to survive as a remnant in the social structure rather than becoming a victim or an outcast.

Facing potential political threats in the twentieth-first century, Judith Butler and Giorgio Agamben, two prominent bio-political critics, both pay special attention to disposable population, but the way they deal with the issue of suffering and vulnerable groups is disparate. On the one hand, Butler endeavors to stress that everyone is interdependent and shared vulnerability, not alienated, through examples of sufferers and victims. Although her analysis of suffering easily causes ethical concerns on shared human vulnerability, the opportunity to break existing prejudicial structure is still limited. On the other hand, Agamben argues that the witnessing suffering is unbearable and the essence of life should be survival, particular in the process from speaking being to living being. His approach emphasizes more on how to survive as a remnant in the social structure rather than becoming a victim or an outcast.