Giorgio Agamben facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Giorgio Agamben
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In 2009, during the presentation of Contributions à la guerre en cours
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| Born | 22 April 1942 |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Education | Sapienza University of Rome (Laurea, 1965) |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Continental philosophy Philosophy of life |
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Main interests
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Aesthetics Political philosophy Social philosophy |
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Notable ideas
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Homo sacer State of exception Whatever singularity Bare life Auctoritas Form-of-life The zoe–bios distinction as the "fundamental categorial pair of Western politics" The paradox of sovereignty |
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Influences
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Influenced
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Giorgio Agamben (born 22 April 1942) is an Italian philosopher. He is well known for his ideas about the state of exception, the concept of "form-of-life," and homo sacer. His writings often explore biopolitics, which is the study of how political power controls human life.
Contents
Biography
Agamben studied at the University of Rome. In 1965, he wrote a thesis on the political ideas of Simone Weil. He also attended special seminars led by the famous philosopher Martin Heidegger in 1966 and 1968.
In the 1970s, Agamben focused on language, literature, and medieval culture. During this time, he started developing his main ideas, even though their political meaning was not yet clear. He was a fellow at the Warburg Institute in London from 1974 to 1975. There, he began working on his second book, Stanzas.
Agamben was friends with many important writers and thinkers. These included poets like Giorgio Caproni and José Bergamín, and the Italian novelist Elsa Morante. He also collaborated with people like Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italo Calvino, and Jacques Derrida.
His most important influences are Martin Heidegger, Walter Benjamin, and Michel Foucault. Agamben edited Benjamin's works in Italian until 1996. He said Benjamin's ideas helped him understand Heidegger's work better. In 1981, Agamben found some of Benjamin's lost writings in Paris. These included Benjamin's ideas on the concept of history, which were very important for Agamben's later work.
Since the 1990s, Agamben has also discussed the political writings of the German lawyer Carl Schmitt. He explored Schmitt's ideas in his book State of Exception (2003). Agamben also builds on the ideas of Michel Foucault, whom he calls a scholar he has learned a lot from.
Agamben's political thinking is based on his studies of Aristotle's writings. These include Politics, Nicomachean Ethics, and On the Soul. He also looked at how these texts were understood in ancient and medieval times.
In his later work, Agamben joined discussions about the idea of community. He proposed his own model of a community in The Coming Community (1990). This model suggests a community that does not rely on fixed ideas of identity.
Today, Agamben teaches at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio in Switzerland. He has also taught at many other universities in Italy, France, and the United States. In 2006, he received the Prix Européen de l'Essai Charles Veillon. In 2013, he won the Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize for his work Leviathan's Riddle.
Main Ideas and Works
Much of Agamben's work since the 1980s has been part of his "Homo Sacer" project. This project started with the book Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. In this series, Agamben responds to studies of totalitarianism and biopolitics by Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault. Since 1995, he has been known for this ongoing project. The books in the series were published out of order and include:
- Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life (1995)
- State of Exception. Homo Sacer II, 1 (2003)
- Stasis: Civil War as a Political Paradigm. Homo Sacer II, 2 (2015)
- The Sacrament of Language: An Archaeology of the Oath. Homo Sacer II, 3 (2008)
- The Kingdom and the Glory: For a Theological Genealogy of Economy and Government. Homo Sacer II, 4 (2007)
- Opus Dei: An Archeology of Duty. Homo Sacer II, 5 (2013)
- Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive. Homo Sacer III (1998).
- The Highest Poverty: Monastic Rules and Forms-of-Life. Homo Sacer IV, 1 (2013)
- The Use of Bodies. Homo Sacer IV, 2 (2016)
In 2017, all these works were put together and published as The Omnibus Homo Sacer.
In the final book of the series, Agamben plans to discuss "forms-of-life" and "lifestyles." He explains that a "form-of-life" is a way of living that cannot be separated from its shape. It is a life where you cannot separate something like "bare life."
Agamben believes that if humans had to be a certain fixed way, then ethical choices would not be possible. But this does not mean humans are nothing. Instead, he says, humans are and must be something. This "something" is not a fixed quality but "the simple fact of one's own existence as possibility or potentiality."
One of Agamben's main ideas is how life can be reduced to "biopolitics." This means that political power focuses on controlling people's basic lives. He uses the idea of a homo sacer, a person reduced to "bare life," who has no rights.
Agamben's idea of the homo sacer uses a key difference in ancient Greek. This difference is between "bare life" (zoê) and "a particular way of life" or "qualified life" (bios). In his book Homo Sacer, he talks about how concentration camps in World War II showed this idea. He says that a camp is a place where a "state of exception" becomes the normal rule.
He explains that what happened in the camps went beyond the idea of a crime. The people in the camps were treated as if they were outside the normal rules of humanity. This happened under special laws that allowed "protective custody." When laws are based on vague ideas like "race," the law and the person applying it become mixed up.
In a "state of exception," these effects can become even stronger. A person accused of a crime might lose their ability to speak for themselves. They can lose their citizenship and control over their own life. Agamben says that the "state of exception" is about the power to decide over life itself.
In a state of exception, those in power decide who has bios (the life of a citizen) and who has zoê (the life of a homo sacer). For example, Agamben would say that Guantánamo Bay showed the "state of exception" after 9/11. He noted that the basic human rights of some individuals held there were ignored by US laws. This meant they were treated as "bare life," outside the law.
The Coming Community (1993)
In The Coming Community, Agamben describes his philosophical ideas about society and politics. He uses short essays to explain "whatever singularity." This is a way of being that shares something simple and common, but not a fixed "essence." He stresses that "whatever" does not mean being uncaring. Instead, it comes from a Latin phrase meaning "being such that it always matters."
Agamben begins by discussing "The Lovable." He says that love is not about specific traits like being blond or tall. But it also doesn't ignore these traits for a general, vague love. Instead, "The lover wants the loved one with all of its predicates, its being such as it is."
He also talks about "ease" as the "place" of love. This means love is meeting a unique moment, which connects to his later idea of "use." He says that "ease" is about the "free use of the proper," which is a very difficult task.
Agamben uses other ideas to describe this "watershed of whatever." These include:
- Example – how a specific thing can also represent a general idea.
- Limbo – a place between being blessed and being condemned.
- Homonym – a word that sounds the same but has different meanings.
- Halo – something that surrounds and highlights a form.
- Face – showing both what is common and what is unique.
- Threshold – a point between inside and outside.
- Coming community – a state that is neither a traditional state nor a non-state.
Other topics in The Coming Community include how the body becomes a product, the idea of evil, and the concept of a messiah.
Unlike some other philosophers, Agamben does not completely reject ideas like subject/object or possibility/reality. Instead, he looks at them differently. He finds the point where they become hard to tell apart. He says that "Matter that does not remain beneath form, but surrounds it with a halo."
Agamben believes that humanity's political job is to show the hidden potential in this area where things are indistinguishable. Even though some say his ideas are impossible dreams, he gives a real example of "whatever singularity" acting politically. He warns that if these unique individuals peacefully show their shared being, it can lead to strong reactions from the state.
Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life (1998)
In his main work, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, Agamben looks at an old idea from Roman law. This idea raises important questions about law and power. In ancient Rome, a person who committed a certain crime could be banned from society. They would lose all their rights as a citizen and become a "homo sacer" (sacred man). This meant anyone could kill them. But at the same time, their life was considered "sacred," so they could not be sacrificed in a religious ceremony.
Even though Roman law no longer fully applied to a Homo sacer, they were still "under the spell" of the law. This means that human life is included in the legal system only by being excluded. This exclusion means they can be killed. The homo sacer was both excluded from the law and included in it at the same time.
Agamben says this strange figure of the homo sacer is like a mirror image of the sovereign (a king or president). A sovereign is both within the law (they can be judged for crimes) and outside the law (they can stop laws for a time).
Agamben uses Carl Schmitt's idea that the Sovereign is the one who can decide on the state of exception. This is a time when the law is temporarily "suspended" but not completely removed.
Agamben argues that laws have always had the power to define "bare life" (zoe). This is different from "qualified life" (bios). Laws do this by excluding some lives, and then they gain power over these lives by controlling them politically. This power to separate "political" beings (citizens) from "bare life" (bodies) has continued from ancient times to today.
For example, Aristotle said that political life is created by including and excluding "bare life." He said humans are animals born to live (zen), but they also aim for the "good life" (eu zen) through politics. In this old idea, "bare life" is what the state must change into the "good life." So, "bare life" is supposedly excluded from the state's higher goals, but it is included precisely so it can be changed.
Agamben believes that biopower, which includes people's basic lives in political plans, might be more obvious in modern states. But it has always existed since the beginning of sovereignty in the West. This is because the idea of "ex-ception" (being both included and excluded) is central to sovereignty.
State of Exception (2005)
In this book, Agamben explores the idea of the "state of exception" (Ausnahmezustand). This term was used by Carl Schmitt, and Agamben connects it to Roman ideas of justitium (a suspension of law) and auctoritas (authority). He then responds to Carl Schmitt's idea that sovereignty is the power to declare an exception.
Agamben's book State of Exception looks at how governments gain more power during times of crisis. He calls these "states of exception." During such times, normal rights can be reduced or ignored as the government claims more power.
The state of exception gives one person or government great power and authority over others. This power goes far beyond what the law usually allows. Agamben says that "the state of exception marks a threshold at which logic and practice blur with each other." This means that pure force, without clear reasons, tries to make rules without any real basis.
Agamben points to Nazi Germany under Hitler as an example of a long-lasting state of exception. He says that "The entire Third Reich can be considered a state of exception that lasted twelve years." He suggests that modern totalitarian rule can be seen as a legal civil war. This allows for the removal of not only political opponents but also whole groups of citizens who do not fit into the political system.
The political power gained through a state of exception puts one government or part of government in charge. It operates outside the usual laws. During these times, certain types of knowledge are seen as true, and certain voices are heard as important, while many others are not. This unfair difference is very important for how knowledge is created. The process of gaining and suppressing knowledge can be a forceful act during a crisis.
Agamben's State of Exception explores how suspending laws during an emergency can become a long-term situation. He specifically looks at how this long-term state of exception can take away people's citizenship. He mentions a military order by President George W. Bush on November 13, 2001. Agamben writes that this order "radically erases any legal status of the individual." This created a type of person who had no legal name or category. For example, Taliban fighters captured in Afghanistan and held at Guantánamo Bay were not treated as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention. They also did not have the status of people charged with a crime under American laws. These individuals were called "enemy combatants."
Agamben's ideas on the state of emergency lead him to suggest that the difference between a dictatorship and a democracy can be very small. He notes that rule by decree (making laws without a full legislative process) has become more common since World War I. He often reminds us that Hitler never fully removed the Weimar Constitution. Instead, he suspended it for the entire time of the Third Reich using the Reichstag Fire Decree in 1933. This indefinite suspension of law is what defines the state of exception.
The Highest Poverty (2011)
In The Highest Poverty, Agamben studies medieval monastic rules. He looks at how these rules relate to ideas from Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy, especially his book Philosophical Investigations. These ideas include following rules, "form-of-life," and the importance of "use." Wittgenstein said that "the meaning of a word is its use in language." He meant "language" to include any understandable behavior.
Agamben traces earlier versions of "form-of-life" through the history of monastic life. He starts with the creation of written rules in the fourth century. The book aims to show the difference between "law" and a special kind of rule that is the opposite of how laws are usually put into practice. To understand this idea, Agamben says we need "a theory of use – of which Western philosophy lacks even the most elementary principles."
Agamben looks at the Franciscans as a unique historical example. This group organized itself with a rule that was their life. They thought of their own lives not as their own property but as a shared "use." He examines how this idea developed and how it eventually became part of the law of the Catholic Church.
According to one reviewer, The Highest Poverty looks at two attempts by medieval Christians to live beyond normal politics. These were centuries of monasticism and the short, important movement started by Francis of Assisi. Agamben believes both failed in ways that teach us something important.
Personal Views
Criticism of US response to 9/11
Giorgio Agamben is very critical of the United States' actions after the September 11, 2001, attacks. He believes these events were used to create a permanent "state of exception" as the main way of governing. He warns against making the "state of exception" a general rule through laws like the USA PATRIOT Act. This, he says, means a permanent setup of martial law and emergency powers.
In January 2004, he refused to give a lecture in the United States. This was because the US-VISIT program required him to give his biometric information (like fingerprints). He felt this reduced him to a state of "bare life" and was similar to the tattooing done by the Nazis during World War II.
However, Agamben's criticisms go beyond the US "war on terror." As he argues in State of Exception (2005), rule by decree has become common in all modern states since World War I. He says it has been used too much and for too long. Agamben points out a general trend in modern times. He notes that when "judicial photography" was invented for identifying criminals, it was only for them. But today, this process is becoming common for all citizens. This puts everyone under constant suspicion and surveillance. He states that "The political body thus has become a criminal body." He also points out that the deportation of Jews in France and other occupied countries was made possible by photos from identity cards.
Furthermore, Agamben's political criticisms lead to a larger philosophical critique of the idea of sovereignty itself. He argues that sovereignty is closely linked to the state of exception.
See also
In Spanish: Giorgio Agamben para niños
- Agamben's explanation of auctoritas
- Agamben's response to Carl Schmitt's definition of sovereignty as the power to decide state exception
- Basileus
- Homo sacer
- Interregnum
- Justitium
- Unlawful combatants
