Vitalist temptations: Life, earth and the nature of war

Abstract

This article stages an encounter between contemporary vitalist thought and the work of the controversial zoologist turned political geographer Friedrich Ratzel (1844–1904). The remarkable degree of congruence between Ratzel's ideas and contemporary more-than-human geography, I argue, opens up crucial questions about vitalism as a political project. A discussion of Ratzel's concept and personal experience of war brings into sharp focus a number of problems in the academic language used by vitalism to blur the boundary between nature and society. The article concludes by suggesting that vitalism should pay closer attention to its own place in the history of modern biopolitical thought.