The article examines interpretations of the term “biopolitics” and analyzes the directions of this term’s conceptualization in modern social and political thought. It states terminological difficulties potentially appeared when using the term “biopolitics” in modern scientific discourse. The article considers etymology of the word “biopolitics” and proves the need of examining this concept in several dimensions - as politics, policy and polity. The article presents key concepts of biopolitics, such as biopower and biolegitimacy. They are considered both in the context of relations between politics, power, legitimacy as traditional concepts of political science and in the context of biopolitics, which let us represent their brand - new semantic and conceptual qualities. The article also analyzes original concepts produced by the concept of biopolitics, such as anthropopolitics, necropolitics, ethopolitics, molecular politics and politics of life. The article shows the relations between “the mother concept” of biopolitics and original concepts being actively elaborated at the moment.
