Introduction: Philosophy and Politics After COVID-19

Abstract

This chapter outlines the main argument of the book and provides an outline for each chapter. In turning to a psychoanalytic understanding of rhetoric, the introduction reveals how language itself has many properties that make it appear to be a virus. As something that comes from the outside, but lives inside of us, language can be uncontrollable and alienating. Language also breaks down the border between the self and the other as it shapes how we see the world and ourselves. Since we learn language through imitation and identification, we often do not understand our own thoughts, and these thoughts can be both fictional and actual.This book uses psychoanalytic concepts to examine the representation of viruses in rhetoric, politics, and popular culture. In utilizing Jean Baudrillard's concept of virality, I examine what it means to use viruses as a metaphor. 1 For instance, what is the effect of saying that a video has gone viral? 2 Does this use of biology to explain culture mean that our societies are determined by biological forces? Moreover, does the rhetoric