The Use of Bodies

by Giorgio Agamben, Adam Kotsko (Translator)

Overview

Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer was one of the seminal works of political philosophy in recent decades. It was also the beginning of a series of interconnected investigations of staggering ambition and scope, investigating the deepest foundations of Western politics and thought.

The Use of Bodies represents the ninth and final volume in this twenty-year undertaking, breaking considerable new ground while clarifying the stakes and implications of the project as a whole. It comprises three major sections. The first uses Aristotle's discussion of slavery as a starting point for radically rethinking notions of selfhood; the second calls for a complete reworking of Western ontology; and the third explores the enigmatic concept of "form-of-life," which is in many ways the motivating force behind the entire Homo Sacer project. Interwoven between these major sections are shorter reflections on individual thinkers (Debord, Foucault, and Heidegger), while the epilogue pushes toward a new approach to political life that breaks with the destructive deadlocks of Western thought. The Use of Bodies represents a true masterwork by one of our greatest living philosophers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804798402
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	03/16/2016
Series:	Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics Series
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 5.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Giorgio Agamben is a contemporary Italian philosopher and political theorist whose works have been translated into numerous languages. His most recent title with Stanford UniversityPress is Stasis (2015).

Table of Contents

Translator's Note xi

Prefatory Note xiii

Prologue xv

I The Use of Bodies

1 The Human Being without Work 3

2 Chresis 24

3 Use and Care 31

4 The Use of the World 38

5 Use-of-Oneself 49

6 Habitual Use 58

7 The Animate Instrument and Technology 66

8 The Inappropriable 80

Intermezzo I 95

II An Archeology of Ontology 111

1 Ontological Apparatus 115

2 Theory of Hypostases 135

3 Toward a Modal Ontology 146

Intermezzo II 176

III Form-of-Life

1 Life Divided 195

2 A Life Inseparable from Its Form 207

3 Living Contemplation 214

4 Life Is a Form Generated by Living 220

5 Toward an Ontology of Style 224

6 Exile of One Alone with One Alone 234

7 "That's How We Do It" 240

8 Work and Inoperativity 245

9 The Myth of Er 249

Epilogue: Toward a Theory of Destituent Potential 263

Bibliography 281

Editorial Reviews

"Among the most important features of Agamben's work, evident in this volume as much as in the whole series, is his attention to theological categories, and his realization that secular political philosophy roots its concepts in them...This is an important book. It can be read by itself, with profit, as a version of the arguments Agamben has been offering for more than three decades."—Paul J. Griffiths , Horizons: The Journal of the College Theology

"In The Use of Bodies, Agamben...takes up again the topic of life, giving us perhaps the most complete genealogy of the philosophical concept of life ever to appear. In particular, Agamben wants to think a conception of life that cannot be separated from its form, a life that cannot be rendered bare. Herein, we are finally treated with Agamben's full conception of the form-of-life, long awaited in his work."—A.J. Smith, Anglican Theological Review

"The Use of Bodies completes its task as set out—Agamben draws together lines of inquiry [and] sets the stage for destituent potential as an inspiration for the coming politics....This work is an essential read for any followers of Agamben's work, as well as one of the more accessible works in his Homo Sacer project."—Michael P.A. Murphy, Reading Religion

From the Publisher

"Among the most important features of Agamben's work, evident in this volume as much as in the whole series, is his attention to theological categories, and his realization that secular political philosophy roots its concepts in them...This is an important book. It can be read by itself, with profit, as a version of the arguments Agamben has been offering for more than three decades."

Horizons: The Journal of the College Theology - Paul J. Griffiths

"The Use of Bodies completes its task as set out—Agamben draws together lines of inquiry [and] sets the stage for destituent potential as an inspiration for the coming politics....This work is an essential read for any followers of Agamben's work, as well as one of the more accessible works in his Homo Sacer project."

Reading Religion - Michael P.A. Murphy

"In The Use of Bodies, Agamben...takes up again the topic of life, giving us perhaps the most complete genealogy of the philosophical concept of life ever to appear. In particular, Agamben wants to think a conception of life that cannot be separated from its form, a life that cannot be rendered bare. Herein, we are finally treated with Agamben's full conception of the form-of-life, long awaited in his work."

Anglican Theological Review - A.J. Smith