The Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies and the Alliance Program at Columbia University present:
Book Talk: Pricing Lives: The Political Art of Measurement
Friday, March 7, 2025
12pm-2pm
1302 International Affairs Building
Advance registration required: https://events.columbia.edu/go/pricinglives
Lunch will be served
With guest speaker Ariel Colonomos, Author, Pricing Lives: The Political Art of Measurement; Research Professor, Sciences Po Paris (CNRS-CERI)
Moderated by Jack Snyder, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations, Department of Political Science
Event Description:
Join the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies for a discussion on Ariel Colonomos’ award-winning book, Pricing Lives: The Political Art of Measurement. The event will focus on how policymakers evaluate and price human lives, exploring contemporary themes like proportionality, the value of hostages, pandemic response, and the cost of reparations. The conversation will examine the intersection of political theory and complex decision-making, revealing how the ways in which human lives are measured and valued shape domestic policy and drive international competition.
Book Description:
Pricing Lives: The Political Art of Measurement discusses how human lives are equated with the material, and argues that pricing lives lies at the core of the political; in fact, as in Plato or Hobbes, and in the Weberian ethics of responsibility, measurement is considered to be one of its central features. Ariel Colonomos argues that this measure relies primarily on human lives and interests, and that the material equivalence to lives is twofold. The equivalence is a double equation, as we pay for lives and we pay with lives. This double equation constitutes the measurement upon which the political equilibrium of a society depends and is thus a key constitutive part of the political.
The book adopts two approaches, both with an interdisciplinary perspective: one explanatory and the other normative. First, it explains the nexus between existential goods and material goods, drawing on a detailed analysis of several case studies from contemporary politics, both domestic and international. Second, it discusses normatively the material valuation of human lives and the human value of material goods. Value attribution and the question of the material equivalent to lives are of relevance not only for political theory and philosophy, but also for sociology, history, international relations, and legal studies.
