Giorgio Agamben: Legal, Political and Philosophical Perspectives

Giorgio Agamben: Legal, Political and Philosophical Perspectives brings together contributions from scholars in a number of fields - including many who have worked closely with Agamben - in order to argue that Agamben's thought is vital to the future directions of research in the humanities and social sciences.

The book is divided into three sections, each coalescing around a different perspective. Contributions in the first section examine the potential for Agamben's thought to impact upon future legal scholarship. Papers draw upon wide ranging issues such as legal oaths, legal reasoning and Hegel's Philosophy of Right. The second section focuses on political perspectives that include references to Marx, Zizek and Agamben's concept of the 'messianic'. The third section considers philosophical perspectives on Agamben's thought, and draws upon art theory, Franz Kafka, and the thought of Gilles Deleuze, Walter Benjamin and Emmanuel Levinas. All three sections, however, address the potential of Agamben's thought by re-focusing attention away from his critiques of Western politics and towards his scheme for a political future. As such the book maintains that Agamben is an important and thoroughly original figure, who has articulated a vision of politics, and of community, that is both achievable and worth recognising.