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The Use of Bodies

  • Giorgio Agamben
  • Translated by: Adam Kotsko and Adam Kotsko
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2016
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About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

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

Reviews

"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 --- "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 --- "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

Topics

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    Frontmatter

    i
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    Contents

    ix
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    Translator’s Note

    xi
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    Prefatory Note

    xiii
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    Prologue

    xv
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  • I. The Use of Bodies
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    1. The Human Being without Work

    1
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    2. Chresis

    24
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    3. Use and Care

    31
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    4. The Use of the World

    38
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    5. Use-of-Oneself

    49
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    6. Habitual Use

    58
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    7. The Animate Instrument and Technology

    66
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    8. The Inappropriable

    80
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    Intermezzo I

    95
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  • II. An Archeology of Ontology
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    Introduction

    111
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    1. Ontological Apparatus

    115
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    2. Theory of Hypostases

    135
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    3. Toward a Modal Ontology

    146
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    Intermezzo II

    176
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  • III. Form-of-Life
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    1. Life Divided

    195
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    2. A Life Inseparable from Its Form

    207
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    3. Living Contemplation

    214
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    4. Life Is a Form Generated by Living

    220
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    5. Toward an Ontology of Style

    224
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    6. Exile of One Alone with One Alone

    234
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    7. “That’s How We Do It”

    240
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    8. Work and Inoperativity

    245
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    9. The Myth of Er

    249
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    Epilogue: Toward a Theory of Destituent Potential

    263
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    Bibliography

    281
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    MERIDIAN

    293
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
September 7, 2020
eBook ISBN:
9780804798617
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
320
https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804798617
eBook ISBN: 9780804798617
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