Exception status

Stato di eccezione

This book, the third in Agamben's "Homo Sacer" series, further develops his historical-philosophical investigation of Western biopolitics. Agamben continues to expand his linguistic-legal thinking, attempting to reposition the concept of "sovereignty" as a product of the "state of exception." He begins by reviewing the history of the state of exception in modern Western society, tracing its canonical origins back to Roman law. He also explores ways to overturn the state of exception within the intellectual debate between Schmitt and Benjamin, exploring the possibility of transcending the opposition between "competence" and "authority" and opening up a new space for political action. The simplified Chinese edition included in the "Spiritual Translation Series" is a comprehensive revision of the original Taiwanese Maitian edition.
Indeed, the state of exception has reached its apex in global deployment today. The normative aspects of law can thus be erased and violated without sanction by a kind of governing violence; while ignoring international law externally and declaring a state of exception internally, it still claims to be applying the law.
Living in a state of exception means experiencing these possibilities simultaneously, but always trying to interrupt the workings of the machine that is leading the West towards global civil war by separating the two forces: the forces that make laws and the forces that abolish laws.
Agamben's State of Exception is a timely and compelling exploration of the ability of state power to withdraw legal safeguards and legal rights, simultaneously abandoning its subjects to the improvisation of legal violence and strengthening state power. Rather than understanding the state of exception as merely contingent and limited, its initiation has become fundamental to the construction of modern state power. Agamben astutely considers the historical and philosophical implications of this power, offering a remarkable reflection on "life" and its tension with normativity. This is an erudite and challenging book, a call to "shut down the machine" and break the violent stranglehold that law exerts on life.
—Judith Butler

2015-01-01

西北大学出版社

184

9787560435664