ABSTRACT
In general, the term “biopolitics” denotes a relatively young interdisciplinary approach with a focus on the contemporary life sciences—psychophysiology, brain science, ethology, endocrinology, or any number of others—as sources of insight and method for the analysis of political behavior. In the standard interpretation of “normal science” (cf. Thomas Kuhn), the life sciences can be usefully discussed in two parts: 1) as a body of knowledge developed through the accumulation of interrelated, replicable and replicated studies which have produced empirically verified and inter-subjectively accepted findings, and 2) as the methodology employed in carrying out empirical analysis. The dichotomy between a corpus of knowledge and the methods for acquiring that knowledge is used in avoiding confusion over “substantive findings” on the one hand and the means (ranging from broad epistemology to specific data-gathering techniques) commonly employed within a particular field for conducting research.
