Abstract

Foucault's notion of biopower and his reflections on barbarism and savagery in ‘Society Must Be Defended’ are part of Western philosophy's theorization of the state of nature. In order to show the implications of this epistemic constellation, the article concentrates on the semantic history of primitivism, providing an alternative genealogy for the biopolitical paradigm and ‘Italian Theory's’ engagement with life and nature. From this perspective, Leopardi stands out as a precursor to contemporary ‘Italian Theory’. Leopardi's fascination with Rousseau's ethnographic exoticism and his meditations on the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality can be seen as a critique of the colonial foundations of European modern philosophy and an attempt to envision another state of nature, beyond the tenets of the social contract tradition.