Potentialities: Collected Essays in Philosophy

by Giorgio Agamben, Daniel Heller-Roazen (Editor, Translator)

This book collects fifteen major philosophical essays written over a period of more than twenty years by acclaimed Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben. The volume opens with an introduction in which the editor situates Agamben's work with respect to both the history of philosophy and contemporary European thought. The essays that follow articulate a series of theoretical confrontations with privileged figures in the history of philosophy, politics, and criticism, from Plato to Spinoza, Aristotle to Deleuze, Carl Schmitt to Benjamin, Hegel to Aby Warburg, and Heidegger to Derrida. Three fundamental concepts organize the collection as a whole: language, in the sense not of particular statements but rather the very taking place of speech, the pure fact of language's existence; history, as it appears from a perspective in which tradition, transmission, and memory reach their messianic fulfillment; and potentiality, understood as a fundamental problem of metaphysics, ethics, and the philosophy of language. All these topics converge in the final part of the book, in which Agamben offers an extensive reading of Melville's short story "Bartleby the Scrivener" as a work that puts potentiality and actuality, possibility and reality, in an altogether new light.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Essays, Theory, Language, Italy

328 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1999

About the author

Giorgio 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.

Reviews

[Matthew Balliro · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is definitely a must-read for Agamben fans and those interested in the philosophy of language. A nice bit of it went over my head, but each essay contains at least a tiny (and most of the time a substantial) reflection on Aristotle's writings on potentiality, which really forms the core of Agamben's philosophical thought. You're still going to be scratching your head at the end as to what it all means, but (I think) you'll have a better idea of how Agamben's thought grew from a linguistic investigation into political theory.

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an open and provocative book from Agamben. We see the explorations of Foucault. And Derrida.

But what makes this book powerful is the subtlety of the analysis. There is an exploration of ambiguity. Becoming. Potentials.

As part of the "philosophy of speculations," the contingencies of life and knowledge are revealed.

Fascinating. Engaging.

[Servabo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book, but not entirely a fan of the philosophy of language.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times it can be rather dense, but it offers a lot of material for political thought.

[Yokusun Basi]

Potentialities: Collected Essays in Philosophy by Giorgio Agamben (2000)

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting and diverse collection of essays from Agamben. Topics range from Plato's Seventh Letter to an essay on Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener." Also touches on Kammerell, Walter Benjamin's "Angel of History," Heidegger and Stimmung. Very readable.