La potencia del pensamiento: Ensayos y conferencias

by Giorgio Agamben, Flavia Costa (Translator), Edgardo Castro (Translator)

Giorgio Agamben reunió en este volumen una amplia selección de sus ensayos inéditos o dispersos en revistas hoy inhallables. Ordenados en tres secciones distintas –Lenguaje, Historia, Potencia–, los diversos motivos de su pensamiento rondan obstinadamente en torno a un único centro, que el título resume en la fórmula: la potencia del pensamiento. En todos estos textos se revela, de hecho, un experimento en curso en el cual lo que está en juego es, en cada caso, el hombre como ser de potencia, que ninguna tarea histórica y ninguna vocación biológica pueden agotar, y que por eso está irrevocablemente consignado a la felicidad.

“A todo hombre le llega el momento en que debe pronunciar este ‘yo puedo’ que no se refiere a ninguna certeza ni a ninguna capacidad específica, y que sin embargo lo empeña y lo pone completamente en juego. Este ‘yo puedo’ más allá de toda facultad y de todo saber hacer, esta afirmación que no significa nada, pone al sujeto inmediatamente frente a la experiencia quizá más exigente –y sin embargo ineludible– con que le es dado medirse: la experiencia de la potencia.”

“En esta nueva dimensión, ya no tendrá mucho sentido distinguir no sólo entre vida orgánica y vida animal, sino entre vida biológica y vida contemplativa, entre vida desnuda y vida de la mente. A la vida como contemplación sin conocimiento corresponderá puntualmente un pensamiento que se ha deshecho de toda cognitividad y de toda intencionalidad. [...] La vida beata ahora yace sobre el mismo terreno en que se mueve el cuerpo biopolítico de Occidente.” Giorgio Agamben

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

528 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.