The word "biology" was first used to describe the scientific study of life in 1802, and as Davide Tarizzo demonstrates in his reconstruction of the genealogy of the concept of life, our understanding of what being alive means is an equally recent invention. Focusing on the histories of philosophy, science, and biopolitics, he contends that biologic
Davide Tarizzo is assistant professor of moral philosophy at the University of Salerno.
Mark William Epstein has translated numerous books, including Lars-Henrik Olsen’s Tracks and Signs of the Animals and Birds of Britain and Europe and Luca Peliti’s Statistical Mechanics in a Nutshell.¿
