An All-Too-Human Virus PDF
Preview An All-Too-Human Virus
An All-Too-Human Virus An All-Too-Human Virus Jean-Luc Nancy Translated by Cory Stockwell, Sarah Clift and David Fernbach polity Originally published in French as Un trop humain virus © Bayard Editions, 2020 This English edition © Polity Press, 2022 Polity Press 65 Bridge Street Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK Polity Press 101 Station Landing Suite 300 Medford, MA 02155, USA All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-5021-0 (hardback) ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-5022-7 (paperback) A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Control Number: 2021939031 Typeset in 12.5 on 15 pt Adobe Garamond by Cheshire Typesetting Ltd, Cuddington, Cheshire Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate. Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition. For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com Contents Publisher’s Note vii Preface viii Prologue 1 1. An All-Too-Human Virus 5 2. ‘Communovirus’ 13 3. Let Us Be Infants 19 4. Evil and Power 27 5. Freedom 35 6. Neoviralism 40 7. To Free Freedom 45 contents 8. The Useful and the Useless 58 9. Still All Too Human 68 Appendix 1. I nterview with Nicolas Dutent 79 Appendix 2. F rom the Future to the Time to Come: The Revolution of the Virus, with Jean-François Bouthors 91 Sources of the Texts 102 vi Publisher’s Note The Preface, Prologue, Chapters 1, 4, and 7 and the Appendices were translated by Cory Stockwell. Chapters 3, 5, 6, 8, and 9 were translated by Sarah Clift. Chapter 2 was translated by David Fernbach. The material included in the Prologue was added to the English edition of this book. vii Preface 1. The texts in this volume were assembled at the initiative of Suzanne Doppelt, for the publisher Bayard, in June 2020, at the (very provisional) end of the period of lockdown, and then of pro- gressive opening, in France. The intention was to keep a record of the reactions to the event brought about by the numerous demands and initiatives that arose at the time – at the very least, of the reactions of one of the numerous ‘philoso- phers’ (this term took on a very broad meaning) that were expressed at that moment. For me, this concerned in particular the YouTube channel created by Jérôme Lèbre, ‘Philosophizing in the Time of the Epidemic’, which ended up includ- ing about a hundred interventions. There was also viii
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