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What Is Philosophy?
In attempting to answer the question posed by this book's title, Giorgio Agamben does not address the idea of philosophy itself. Rather, he turns to the apparently most insignificant of its components: the phonemes, letters, syllables, and words that come together to make up the phrases and ideas of philosophical discourse. A summa, of sorts, of Agamben's thought, the book consists of five essays on five emblematic topics: the Voice, the Sayable, the Demand, the Proem, and the Muse. In keeping with the author's trademark methodology, each essay weaves together archaeological and theoretical investigations: to a patient reconstruction of how the concept of language was invented there corresponds an attempt to restore thought to its place within the voice; to an unusual interpretation of the Platonic Idea corresponds a lucid analysis of the relationship between philosophy and science, and of the crisis that both are undergoing today. In the end, there is no universal answer to what is an impossible or inexhaustible question, and philosophical writing—a problem Agamben has never ceased to grapple with—assumes the form of a prelude to a work that must remain unwritten.
136 pages, Hardcover
Published September 26, 2017
13 people are currently reading
154 people want to read
About the author
Giorgio Agamben
235 books982 followersGiorgio Agamben is one of the leading figures in Italian and contemporary continental philosophy. He is the author of Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life; Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive; Profanations; The Signature of All Things: On Method, and other books. Through the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s he treated a wide range of topics, including aesthetics, literature, language, ontology, nihilism, and radical political thought.
In recent years, his work has had a deep impact on contemporary scholarship in a number of disciplines in the Anglo-American intellectual world. Born in Rome in 1942, Agamben completed studies in Law and Philosophy with a doctoral thesis on the political thought of Simone Weil, and participated in Martin Heidegger’s seminars on Hegel and Heraclitus as a postdoctoral scholar.
He rose to international prominence after the publication of Homo Sacer in 1995. Translated into English in 1998, the book’s analyses of law, life, and state power appeared uncannily prescient after the attacks on New York City and Washington, DC in September 2001, and the resultant shifts in the geopolitical landscape. Provoking a wave of scholarly interest in the philosopher’s work, the book also marked the beginning of a 20-year research project, which represents Agamben’s most important contribution to political philosophy.
In recent years, his work has had a deep impact on contemporary scholarship in a number of disciplines in the Anglo-American intellectual world. Born in Rome in 1942, Agamben completed studies in Law and Philosophy with a doctoral thesis on the political thought of Simone Weil, and participated in Martin Heidegger’s seminars on Hegel and Heraclitus as a postdoctoral scholar.
He rose to international prominence after the publication of Homo Sacer in 1995. Translated into English in 1998, the book’s analyses of law, life, and state power appeared uncannily prescient after the attacks on New York City and Washington, DC in September 2001, and the resultant shifts in the geopolitical landscape. Provoking a wave of scholarly interest in the philosopher’s work, the book also marked the beginning of a 20-year research project, which represents Agamben’s most important contribution to political philosophy.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 10, 2020
Having capped off his extraordinary, decade-spanning Homo Sacer series with The Use of Bodies in 2016, it was only a matter of time, I like to imagine, before the floodlights of Giorgio Agamben's pen would turn themselves to the very question of philosophy itself. And, in line with expectations, 'What is Philosophy?' (WIP) reads as nothing less than a mission statement - not only to Agamben's broader philosophical output, but as one bequeathed to philosophy more generally, a vocation to be taken up and transmitted out to any future philosophy-to-come. Picking up on threads left half-stitched all throughout his oeuvre (from the opening essays of Potentialities, the whole of Language and Death, and last chapter of Remnants of Auschwitz), WIP gathers all these up and more, binding them into a neat little bow that, for a reader of Agamben's ever digressive writings, couldn't be more satisfying.
Taking its cue from the anthropogenic ('human-making') fact of the separation of 'life' on the one hand, and 'language' on the other, WIP situates philosophy at the intersection of the two, whose job it is to bring to light and 'neutralize' that ever-confused articulation of the one with the other. If this sounds confusing, it simply means this: for Agamben, the odd fact of human 'nature' resides in its constitutive relation to culture - the human is the being for whom his or her 'nature' resides beyond his or her biology and rather in sphere of language - the civilizational and historical archive we pass down to one another 'exosomatically', outside of ourselves. The human without language is simply not fully human - un enfant sauvage - mired in life without access to one's exogenic nature. To that end, who - and what - we are has always turned upon the exact articulation of language with life, the way in which the one is, or is not, coupled to the other, a modulating dance played out across time.
In the story told here, philosophy's role in tracking that articulation has long been suspect, marked by a particular conception of language unable to do full justice to human potentiality. In particular, Agamben charges Aristotle, who, in evacuating Plato's theory of Ideas from philosophy, fatally sunk the discipline into a series of dichotomies it has been unable to so far overcome - essence and existence, act and potential, and even, of course, nature and culture. With life 'captured' by an inadequate conception of language, it's to the task of reclaiming just that Platonic theory of Ideas that Agamben here turns, in an exercise as audacious as it is incredible to follow. Rejecting the all-too-commonplace understanding of Ideas as 'universals' ("the worst misunderstanding of Plato's intention"), Agamben works to rethink Ideas on the basis of their (apparently!) linguistic heritage, finding in the Stoic doctrine of 'sayables' (lekta) the conceptual resources for a 'new experience of language' consubstantial with a reanimated theory of Ideas.
It's in the Idea then, that Agamben ultimately finds the ground for a redeemed thought of both language and life, at whose intersection philosophy always dwells. While I'm in no position to assess the ins-and-outs of Agamben's intricate readings of ancient philosophy against whatever mainstream interpretations there might be, one ought to stick around if only for the exhilaration of the read, which unfolds like a philological detective novel, one incandescent revelation after the next. And all this to speak only of both the opening and the central essay of the book ("Experimentum Vocis" and "On the Sayable and the Idea")! Of the readings of Leibniz, music, and proems (not a mispelling of 'poems' - look it up!) - to this I leave any future reader to delight in. While it's true that the vision of philosophy within only really emerges in the half-light of Agamben's otherwise winding investigations of disparate topics, to watch it all fall together is to watch a philosopher at work at the height of his powers.
Taking its cue from the anthropogenic ('human-making') fact of the separation of 'life' on the one hand, and 'language' on the other, WIP situates philosophy at the intersection of the two, whose job it is to bring to light and 'neutralize' that ever-confused articulation of the one with the other. If this sounds confusing, it simply means this: for Agamben, the odd fact of human 'nature' resides in its constitutive relation to culture - the human is the being for whom his or her 'nature' resides beyond his or her biology and rather in sphere of language - the civilizational and historical archive we pass down to one another 'exosomatically', outside of ourselves. The human without language is simply not fully human - un enfant sauvage - mired in life without access to one's exogenic nature. To that end, who - and what - we are has always turned upon the exact articulation of language with life, the way in which the one is, or is not, coupled to the other, a modulating dance played out across time.
In the story told here, philosophy's role in tracking that articulation has long been suspect, marked by a particular conception of language unable to do full justice to human potentiality. In particular, Agamben charges Aristotle, who, in evacuating Plato's theory of Ideas from philosophy, fatally sunk the discipline into a series of dichotomies it has been unable to so far overcome - essence and existence, act and potential, and even, of course, nature and culture. With life 'captured' by an inadequate conception of language, it's to the task of reclaiming just that Platonic theory of Ideas that Agamben here turns, in an exercise as audacious as it is incredible to follow. Rejecting the all-too-commonplace understanding of Ideas as 'universals' ("the worst misunderstanding of Plato's intention"), Agamben works to rethink Ideas on the basis of their (apparently!) linguistic heritage, finding in the Stoic doctrine of 'sayables' (lekta) the conceptual resources for a 'new experience of language' consubstantial with a reanimated theory of Ideas.
It's in the Idea then, that Agamben ultimately finds the ground for a redeemed thought of both language and life, at whose intersection philosophy always dwells. While I'm in no position to assess the ins-and-outs of Agamben's intricate readings of ancient philosophy against whatever mainstream interpretations there might be, one ought to stick around if only for the exhilaration of the read, which unfolds like a philological detective novel, one incandescent revelation after the next. And all this to speak only of both the opening and the central essay of the book ("Experimentum Vocis" and "On the Sayable and the Idea")! Of the readings of Leibniz, music, and proems (not a mispelling of 'poems' - look it up!) - to this I leave any future reader to delight in. While it's true that the vision of philosophy within only really emerges in the half-light of Agamben's otherwise winding investigations of disparate topics, to watch it all fall together is to watch a philosopher at work at the height of his powers.
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October 16, 2017My first taste of Agamben, and it exceeded expectations.
Composed of five essays, 'What is Philosophy?' is a neo-Platonic take on the essence of philosophy and how it's been misused in the past. Drawing heavily upon the linguistic theories of Benveniste, Saussure, Aristotle and Plato (in the Cratylus and Seventh Letter), Agamben attempts to reframe what philosophy does .
Like I said, this is neo-Platonic. Theories of Plato and the ancients are utilized throughout, and Agamben's understanding of classical Greek is outstanding. To understand philosophy, we need to work back to its roots in Plato, reworking his texts instead of taking the 'bastardized' interpretation of Aristotle as dogmatic (Agamben's ideas; though Aristotle provides much an insight into the relationship between voice, language, logos, names, etc., Plato's theory of space is wholly misread in Agamben's opinion). In a sense, this sounded Heideggerian to me; return to the roots of thinking, in Greece, as civilization is based on interpretations of interpretations ad infinitum . They both split in many different ways in using that idea of 'returning,' but the oversimplified ideas are the same (yes, I've acknowledged that the idea is oversimplified for now).
Agamben holds poetry and music in high esteem with regard to philosophy. The decline of the significance of the two has also been a decline in philosophy.
"Poetry could thus be defined as the attempt to maximally stretch the differences between the semiotic and semantic series, sound and sense, voice and logos [in Greek] toward a pure sound, through the rhyme and the enjambement; conversely, philosophical prose could then appear as tending toward the fulfillment of these differences in a pure sense."
Composed of five essays, 'What is Philosophy?' is a neo-Platonic take on the essence of philosophy and how it's been misused in the past. Drawing heavily upon the linguistic theories of Benveniste, Saussure, Aristotle and Plato (in the Cratylus and Seventh Letter), Agamben attempts to reframe what philosophy does .
Like I said, this is neo-Platonic. Theories of Plato and the ancients are utilized throughout, and Agamben's understanding of classical Greek is outstanding. To understand philosophy, we need to work back to its roots in Plato, reworking his texts instead of taking the 'bastardized' interpretation of Aristotle as dogmatic (Agamben's ideas; though Aristotle provides much an insight into the relationship between voice, language, logos, names, etc., Plato's theory of space is wholly misread in Agamben's opinion). In a sense, this sounded Heideggerian to me; return to the roots of thinking, in Greece, as civilization is based on interpretations of interpretations ad infinitum . They both split in many different ways in using that idea of 'returning,' but the oversimplified ideas are the same (yes, I've acknowledged that the idea is oversimplified for now).
Agamben holds poetry and music in high esteem with regard to philosophy. The decline of the significance of the two has also been a decline in philosophy.
"Poetry could thus be defined as the attempt to maximally stretch the differences between the semiotic and semantic series, sound and sense, voice and logos [in Greek] toward a pure sound, through the rhyme and the enjambement; conversely, philosophical prose could then appear as tending toward the fulfillment of these differences in a pure sense."
May 5, 2024
It’s funny because this is the kind of “What is Philosophy” you’d expect from Deleuze because it’s so semiotics based. This “What is Philosophy” is as much, if not more “sense” oriented than Deleuze’s oeuvre. Funny that Deleuze seems to think there is some philosophy left in his anti-philosophy. Some Foucault-like structure left in his post-structuralism. And then you have Agamben, who’s all about the biopolitical abuse of power, social norms, and the law (also like Foucault). And he’s like let’s get a bit linguistic for a second, *lights dimming and romantic music suddenly playing*
Linguistics was the structure that Deleuze seemed to think he might still need, to make his philosophical ideas make sense. For Deleuze, linguistic semiotics gives him more credibility. He carried this awareness of his own credibility with these huge bibliographies.
For Agamben, linguistics is like the more abstract, idealistic, structure of his social norms. It gives his legal biopolitical hegemony more social teeth…and yet both philosophers could be considered “post-structuralists”…to make it as confusing as possible…You can always tell the most about western philosophers based on their outright hypocrisies and how they align with the historical time period they live in.
Linguistics was the structure that Deleuze seemed to think he might still need, to make his philosophical ideas make sense. For Deleuze, linguistic semiotics gives him more credibility. He carried this awareness of his own credibility with these huge bibliographies.
For Agamben, linguistics is like the more abstract, idealistic, structure of his social norms. It gives his legal biopolitical hegemony more social teeth…and yet both philosophers could be considered “post-structuralists”…to make it as confusing as possible…You can always tell the most about western philosophers based on their outright hypocrisies and how they align with the historical time period they live in.
October 10, 2022
I did not understand it. And I think because of the deliberate obscurity of its content. One the one hand, it must be noted that the title is solely a marketing move, in total disregard of the actual content of the book. This is a collection of 5 essays around different topics (mostly linguistic philosophy, logics, music) which, or at least not explicitly, does not address the initial question. Moreover, all the foreign language terms (Greek, German and the like) are kept in the original language, supposing who is not able to understand them as not worthy to read the book. This snooty attitude is very annoying, and impair the general output of the book.
September 20, 2025
Una de las cosas más complejas que he leído, sin embargo, me he llevado un montón de cosas.
Agamben tiene una narrativa muy interesante en este libro. Ya que es mi primer acercamiento a su filosofía y sobre todo a su "definición", me parece increíble que cada punto vaya ahondando en el constante cambio y uso del lenguaje. El Experimentum Vocis es una maravilla, difícil de leer y entender, pero con conocimiento básico de griego y latín todo va mucho mejor.
No es filosofía para principiantes, lo aseguro, ya que debes conocer conceptos ontológicos y mucha etimología.
Me gustó. Pero no lo disfruté como quería.
Agamben tiene una narrativa muy interesante en este libro. Ya que es mi primer acercamiento a su filosofía y sobre todo a su "definición", me parece increíble que cada punto vaya ahondando en el constante cambio y uso del lenguaje. El Experimentum Vocis es una maravilla, difícil de leer y entender, pero con conocimiento básico de griego y latín todo va mucho mejor.
No es filosofía para principiantes, lo aseguro, ya que debes conocer conceptos ontológicos y mucha etimología.
Me gustó. Pero no lo disfruté como quería.
November 22, 2020
Siempre me ha parecido interesante la manera en que Agamben puede acercarse a un tema, que podría parecer superficial, y desmenuzarlo, para así, hasta deslumbrar un acercamiento profundo a temas tan profundos e íntimos del ser humano. Con este libro realiza este mismo ejercicio, aunque con el ensayo sobre Platón si me costó un poco seguirle la línea,
August 10, 2019
NOW THAT IS WHAT I CALL PHILOSOPHICAL EPIPHANY
This is one if not the best book of modern philosophy I have read.
Do not be fooled by the title. This is not a prosaic answer to the question 'what is philosophy?' done by way of an accessible and ultimately sterile introduction.
This is instead a ground-breaking investigation into the very possibility of philosophy as contained in the limits of language and its relationship to 'the things themselves'.
I say ground-breaking partly because my understanding of Plato's metaphysics—among other things —was hugely clarified in the few hours it took me to read this book.
Indeed, I was never enamoured with superficial interpretations of Plato's 'theory of ideas' as being 'universals'.
Agamben sets the record straight when it comes to Plato's understanding of language and points out where Aristotle misunderstood his master in his own meditations on language.
Poetry, mathematics, modern science, and, by the very end, music also come into consideration in this book, particularly in their relationship to philosophy.
Like other great philosophical books of its kind, What Is Philosophy? hit me with mental epiphany after mental epiphany.
However, translating the text's esoteric and rich argumentation into layman's terms for the benefit of everyday understanding can only come across as daft, however pretentious of me this may sound.
But that need not be so surprising.
We would not paraphrase a poem into everyday spoken language and expect it to retain its artistic magic would we?
Anyway, this late opus by Giorgio Agamben earns an easy five stars from me.
This is one if not the best book of modern philosophy I have read.
Do not be fooled by the title. This is not a prosaic answer to the question 'what is philosophy?' done by way of an accessible and ultimately sterile introduction.
This is instead a ground-breaking investigation into the very possibility of philosophy as contained in the limits of language and its relationship to 'the things themselves'.
I say ground-breaking partly because my understanding of Plato's metaphysics—among other things —was hugely clarified in the few hours it took me to read this book.
Indeed, I was never enamoured with superficial interpretations of Plato's 'theory of ideas' as being 'universals'.
Agamben sets the record straight when it comes to Plato's understanding of language and points out where Aristotle misunderstood his master in his own meditations on language.
Poetry, mathematics, modern science, and, by the very end, music also come into consideration in this book, particularly in their relationship to philosophy.
Like other great philosophical books of its kind, What Is Philosophy? hit me with mental epiphany after mental epiphany.
However, translating the text's esoteric and rich argumentation into layman's terms for the benefit of everyday understanding can only come across as daft, however pretentious of me this may sound.
But that need not be so surprising.
We would not paraphrase a poem into everyday spoken language and expect it to retain its artistic magic would we?
Anyway, this late opus by Giorgio Agamben earns an easy five stars from me.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews