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Theory Redux (Polity)
Persons and Things: From the Body's Point of View
What is the relationship between persons and things? And how does the body transform this relationship? In this highly original new book, Roberto Esposito - one of Italy's leading political philosophers - considers these questions and shows that starting from the body, rather than from the thing or the person, can help us to reconsider the status of both.
Ever since its beginnings, our civilization has been based on a strict, unequivocal distinction between persons and things, founded on the instrumental domination of persons over things. This opposition arose out of ancient Roman law and persisted throughout modernity, to take its place in our current global market, where it continues to generate growing contradictions. Although the distinction seems to appear clear and necessary to us, what we are continually witnessing in legal, economic, and technological practice is a reversal of perspectives: some categories of persons are becoming assimilated with things, while some types of things are taking on a personal profile.
With his customary rigour, Roberto Esposito argues that there exists an escape route out of this paradox, constituted by a new point of view founded in the body. Neither a person nor a thing, the human body becomes the decisive element in rethinking the concepts and values that govern our philosophical, legal, and political lexicons.
Ever since its beginnings, our civilization has been based on a strict, unequivocal distinction between persons and things, founded on the instrumental domination of persons over things. This opposition arose out of ancient Roman law and persisted throughout modernity, to take its place in our current global market, where it continues to generate growing contradictions. Although the distinction seems to appear clear and necessary to us, what we are continually witnessing in legal, economic, and technological practice is a reversal of perspectives: some categories of persons are becoming assimilated with things, while some types of things are taking on a personal profile.
With his customary rigour, Roberto Esposito argues that there exists an escape route out of this paradox, constituted by a new point of view founded in the body. Neither a person nor a thing, the human body becomes the decisive element in rethinking the concepts and values that govern our philosophical, legal, and political lexicons.
144 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 26, 2014
13 people are currently reading
209 people want to read
About the author
Roberto Esposito
107 books51 followersRoberto Esposito was born in Naples where he graduated at University of Naples 'Federico II'.
He is Vice Director of the Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane, is Full Professor of Theoretical Philosophy and the coordinator of the doctoral programme in Philosophy.
For five years he was the only Italian member of the International Council of Scholars of the Collège International de Philosophie in Paris.
He was one of the founders of the European Political Lexicon Research Centre and the International Centre for a European Legal and Political Lexicon, which was established by a consortium made up of the Universities of Bologna, Florence, Padua, Salerno, Naples L'Orientale and Naples S. Orsola Benincasa.
He is co-editor of Filosofia Politica published by il Mulino, the 'Per la Storia della Filosofia Politica' series for publishers Franco Angeli, the series 'Storia e teoria politica' for publishers Bibliopolis and the series 'Comunità e Libertà' for Laterza.
He is editor of the 'Teoria e Oggetti' series published by Liguori and also acts as a philosophy consultant for publishers Einaudi.
He is Vice Director of the Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane, is Full Professor of Theoretical Philosophy and the coordinator of the doctoral programme in Philosophy.
For five years he was the only Italian member of the International Council of Scholars of the Collège International de Philosophie in Paris.
He was one of the founders of the European Political Lexicon Research Centre and the International Centre for a European Legal and Political Lexicon, which was established by a consortium made up of the Universities of Bologna, Florence, Padua, Salerno, Naples L'Orientale and Naples S. Orsola Benincasa.
He is co-editor of Filosofia Politica published by il Mulino, the 'Per la Storia della Filosofia Politica' series for publishers Franco Angeli, the series 'Storia e teoria politica' for publishers Bibliopolis and the series 'Comunità e Libertà' for Laterza.
He is editor of the 'Teoria e Oggetti' series published by Liguori and also acts as a philosophy consultant for publishers Einaudi.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 12, 2020
Saggio stimolante, piuttosto accessibile nonostante i numerosi riferimenti filosofici, e ricco di spunti per la contemporaneità.
April 15, 2020
Esposito certainly makes some very interesting and important points. There is a vital distinction to be made between persons and things, or so it has been since antiquity. Esposito chalanges this distinction by means of looking towards the body, for the body fits uncomfortably as either thing or person. There is a objectification of the self taking place at the moment when one takes the viewpoint of the body. The body is that which perceives, but is also perceived. The idea of defining personhood as that which is not a thing and the thing as that which is own is interesting. There are some repetition in the book and I am not sure that I agree fully with Esposito. I think that personhood can be located in the body and that the 'othering' that happens when the body perceives itself as a person does not negate the possibility of the body as a 'bodyperson'. At least I think that Esposito questions that.
June 23, 2018
A nice overview of philosophical and legal discourses on the separation of persons and things. The boundary between them has been stated and transgressed multiple times, and Esposito argues that they are increasingly difficult to separate in our current age because our (philosophical and legal) attention has shifted towards the body, which is neither a person nor a thing. I really enjoyed reading this book because it is clear, many key thinkers are cited, and it is short. :)
May 20, 2025
This was precisely the level of engagement I'd hoped for when reading this Theory Redux series. So far, the series has been hit and miss (Xenofeminism - fantastic!; Making Multiplicities - meh; Post-comedy- meh). The Esposito takes some of his Foucauldian practices and applying them to the distinction between bodies, persons, and things. This provides a nice alternative reading of objects in contrast to Harman's OOO. Definitely worth the price of picking up.
January 21, 2023
人被罗马法的人格装置形塑和制约，丧失对物所有权者将自身减等为物，政治神学的身体被分割为自然身体和政治身体，人向着物滑移。
物的命运使其成为柏拉图的超验实在、罗马法中的诉讼之物和诉讼程序本身、神学架构里虚无的受造物、抑或是现象之外的黑暗客体，它在词与物的断裂中跌入语言的否定之维，从而物丧失其肉身而沦为本质被悬置的客体或纯粹的符号，言说以否定性的方式开展，人在抽象的交换关系中被物化，物本身也成为了拟像而滑向了空洞的深渊。
身体哲学的视域填补了λόγος和βίος的鸿沟，使物成为人的构成成分，并最终成为各民族政治重构的代理；政治身体的联结促成了新型政治主体的滥觞，并在诸众的和声中呼唤着崭新的政治形态。
物的命运使其成为柏拉图的超验实在、罗马法中的诉讼之物和诉讼程序本身、神学架构里虚无的受造物、抑或是现象之外的黑暗客体，它在词与物的断裂中跌入语言的否定之维，从而物丧失其肉身而沦为本质被悬置的客体或纯粹的符号，言说以否定性的方式开展，人在抽象的交换关系中被物化，物本身也成为了拟像而滑向了空洞的深渊。
身体哲学的视域填补了λόγος和βίος的鸿沟，使物成为人的构成成分，并最终成为各民族政治重构的代理；政治身体的联结促成了新型政治主体的滥觞，并在诸众的和声中呼唤着崭新的政治形态。
August 30, 2023
Il titolo è eloquente: qui si affronta il problema del rapporto tra le persone e le cose dal punto di vista del diritto, a partire dal diritto romano. Il corpo si pone a metà tra persona e cosa: è irriducibile.
November 30, 2019
A compelling and much-needed account of the body within the realm of the political.
April 22, 2016
Un agile e breve testo, davvero interessante. Qui Esposito prosegue la sua riflessione già avviata in *Terza persona* e in *Due* sulla necessità di ripensare l'impersonalità, alla luce di una critica del dispositivo di persona. Quest'ultimo, infatti, da un lato tradizionalmente oggetto del diritto romano, dall'altro per una valorizzazione cristiana, è la base che mantiene ancora oggi attivo il linguaggio e l'operare della teologia-politica.
In questo saggio, più specificatamente, Esposito affronta la separazione netta, data come immediata, fra le persone e le cose. Cartesianamente questa divisione appare incontrovertibile, ma lo iato che si viene a creare (e il tentativo di possedere le seconde dalle prime, ma anche il diventare cose delle persone) deve condurci a ripensare questa rottura. Avvicinare i due termini significa rivalutare il ruolo del corpo, come unificante poiché non appartiene né alla categoria della persona né a quella della cosa, ma è ciò senza il quale le due *res* cartesiane non comunicano.
La rivalutazione del corpo e il ritorno a una reale unità e immanenza, si deve ad una tradizione minoritaria nell'Occidente filosofico che trova, secondo Esposito, in Spinoza la sua origine, passando per Vico e per la solitaria riflessione di Nietzsche.
In questo saggio, più specificatamente, Esposito affronta la separazione netta, data come immediata, fra le persone e le cose. Cartesianamente questa divisione appare incontrovertibile, ma lo iato che si viene a creare (e il tentativo di possedere le seconde dalle prime, ma anche il diventare cose delle persone) deve condurci a ripensare questa rottura. Avvicinare i due termini significa rivalutare il ruolo del corpo, come unificante poiché non appartiene né alla categoria della persona né a quella della cosa, ma è ciò senza il quale le due *res* cartesiane non comunicano.
La rivalutazione del corpo e il ritorno a una reale unità e immanenza, si deve ad una tradizione minoritaria nell'Occidente filosofico che trova, secondo Esposito, in Spinoza la sua origine, passando per Vico e per la solitaria riflessione di Nietzsche.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews