bios

is existence as the object of a technique, or political life. Zoe is life as a property of organisms.

bios and zoe, the former identifying existence as the object of a technique, the latter referring to life as a property of organisms . [Foucault treats of this distinction in his 1981 Lecture Course at the College de France, entitled 'Subjectivite et verite']. For Agamben, the nation state operates a subsumption of naked life (zoe) under political life (bios) in so far as it grounds its sovereignty on the very notion of birth (natio). This is also evident in the intrinsic ambiguity of the notion of people:

bios, n.All

bios