Skip to content

Homo Sacer

Homo Sacer Paperback / softback - 1998 - 1st Edition

by Giorgio Agamben

  • New
  • Paperback

Description

Paperback / softback. New. New Book; Fast Shipping from UK; Not signed; Not First Edition; One of Italy's most original philosophers aims to connect the problem of pure possibility, potentiality, and power with the problem of political and social ethics in a context where the latter has lost its previous religious, metaphysic
New
NZ$48.69
NZ$16.76 Shipping to USA
Standard delivery: 7 to 12 days
More Shipping Options
Ships from Ria Christie Collections (Greater London, United Kingdom)

About Ria Christie Collections Greater London, United Kingdom

Biblio member since 2014
Seller rating: This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.

Hello We are professional online booksellers. We sell mostly new books and textbooks and we do our best to provide a competitive price. We are based in Greater London, UK. We pride ourselves by providing a good customer service throughout, shipping the items quickly and replying to customer queries promptly. Ria Christie Collections

Terms of Sale:

30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.

Browse books from Ria Christie Collections

Details

  • Title Homo Sacer
  • Author Giorgio Agamben
  • Binding Paperback / softback
  • Edition number 1st
  • Edition 1
  • Condition New
  • Pages 228
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Stanford University Press, Stanford
  • Date 1998-04-01
  • Features Bibliography, Index
  • Bookseller's Inventory # ria9780804732185_inp
  • ISBN 9780804732185 / 0804732183
  • Weight 0.65 lbs (0.29 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 in (21.34 x 13.72 x 1.52 cm)
  • Reading level 1610
  • Library of Congress subjects Concentration camps, Religion and politics
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 97036621
  • Dewey Decimal Code 320.011

From the publisher

The work of Giorgio Agamben, one of Italy's most important and original philosophers, has been based on an uncommon erudition in classical traditions of philosophy and rhetoric, the grammarians of late antiquity, Christian theology, and modern philosophy. Recently, Agamben has begun to direct his thinking to the constitution of the social and to some concrete, ethico-political conclusions concerning the state of society today, and the place of the individual within it.

In Homo Sacer, Agamben aims to connect the problem of pure possibility, potentiality, and power with the problem of political and social ethics in a context where the latter has lost its previous religious, metaphysical, and cultural grounding. Taking his cue from Foucault's fragmentary analysis of biopolitics, Agamben probes with great breadth, intensity, and acuteness the covert or implicit presence of an idea of biopolitics in the history of traditional political theory. He argues that from the earliest treatises of political theory, notably in Aristotle's notion of man as a political animal, and throughout the history of Western thinking about sovereignty (whether of the king or the state), a notion of sovereignty as power over "life" is implicit.

The reason it remains merely implicit has to do, according to Agamben, with the way the sacred, or the idea of sacrality, becomes indissociable from the idea of sovereignty. Drawing upon Carl Schmitt's idea of the sovereign's status as the exception to the rules he safeguards, and on anthropological research that reveals the close interlinking of the sacred and the taboo, Agamben defines the sacred person as one who can be killed and yet not sacrificed--a paradox he sees as operative in the status of the modern individual living in a system that exerts control over the collective "naked life" of all individuals.

From the rear cover

The work of Giorgio Agamben, one of Italy's most important and original philosophers, has been based on an uncommon erudition in classical traditions of philosophy and rhetoric, the grammarians of late antiquity, Christian theology, and modern philosophy. Recently, Agamben has begun to direct his thinking to the constitution of the social and to some concrete, ethico-political conclusions concerning the state of society today, and the place of the individual within it.
In Homo Sacer, Agamben aims to connect the problem of pure possibility, potentiality, and power with the problem of political and social ethics in a context where the latter has lost its previous religious, metaphysical, and cultural grounding. Taking his cue from Foucault's fragmentary analysis of biopolitics, Agamben probes with great breadth, intensity, and acuteness the covert or implicit presence of an idea of biopolitics in the history of traditional political theory. He argues that from the earliest treatises of political theory, notably in Aristotle's notion of man as a political animal, and throughout the history of Western thinking about sovereignty (whether of the king or the state), a notion of sovereignty as power over "life" is implicit.
The reason it remains merely implicit has to do, according to Agamben, with the way the sacred, or the idea of sacrality, becomes indissociable from the idea of sovereignty. Drawing upon Carl Schmitt's idea of the sovereign's status as the exception to the rules he safeguards, and on anthropological research that reveals the close interlinking of the sacred and the taboo, Agamben defines the sacred person as one who can be killed and yet not sacrificed--a paradox he sees as operative in the status of the modern individual living in a system that exerts control over the collective "naked life" of all individuals.

Categories

About the author

Giorgio Agamben teaches philosophy at the University of Venice.