Giorgio Agamben

This slim volume is reliant on the lines of thought explored previously by Agamben in The Sacrament of Language and The Kingdom and the Glory, although it might be approachable on its own by a generally well-read and determined reader. I found it slow going, requiring as much as five minutes per page.

The first chapter is on "Liturgy and Politics," but mostly liturgy. It focuses on the emergence and development of a distinction between opus operans and opus operatum in sacramental activity. Only at the very end does Agamben remark that he considers this instrument for the "effectiveness of the cult" to be a "theological model ... which has made a lasting mark on praxis in the Marxist tradition" (26).

The first part of Chapter 2 "From Mystery to Effect" should be read in dialogue with Drudgery Divine by Jonathan Z. Smith. It is somewhat amusing that Agamben should take the side of the (anti-pagan) Protestants in the relevant questions about Christian liturgical origins, while Smith assails it. "Effect" is concerned with the "transformation of being into operativity" that results from the "ontological-practical paradigm ... of effectiveness" (63) which Agamben identifies with sacerdotal mystery.

The third chapter offers "A Genealogy of Office," which begins to focus on the historically articulated nature of ministry as a duty and a function. This interesting study culminates in a declaration that "[T]he priesthood, of which the character is the cipher, is not a real predicate but a pure signature, which manifests only the constitutive excess of effectiveness over being" (87). (There is also an interesting mention of Varro's three modalities agere, facere, and gerere, which seem to correspond to the offices of Cancellarius, Praemonstrator, and Imperator, respectively. 82)

"The Two Ontologies" of the fourth chapter are the philosophical-scientific and the religious-juridical. The former is characterized by the indicative mood and the latter by the imperative. Agamben illustrates various ways in which these two oppose one another and yet have become intertwined and reliant upon one another, with the tendency to privilege the religious-juridical under the cover of the philosophical-scientific reaching an acme in the 18th century. His account here makes solid sense out of Kant, and it almost re-interested me in Heidegger. The alignment of liturgy and ethics is witnessed through the concept of pious "devotion." Agamben writes, "Theologians never lost awareness of the pagan origin of devotio, with which the commander consecrated his own life to the infernal gods in order to obtain victory in a battle" (103).

The close of the book offers a discussion of the metaphysics of will, which arrives at remarks perfectly congruent with Beyond Good and Evil section 19, although Agamben never cites Nietzsche in the whole book. And then I was perplexed to read the final sentence, for which he never seemed to have supplied the motivation: "The problem of the coming philosophy is that of thinking an ontology beyond operativity and command and an ethics and a politics entirely liberated from the concepts of duty and will." As usual, Agamben gives me useful insights and leaves me scratching my head.… (mehr)

“一切潜能同时也是相反方面的潜能。凡是能够不存在的东西，就不能以任何方式存在，而所有能够存在的东西却允许不实现。”（via Aristotle）
需要强调的是，“非潜能”并非潜能的缺失（privation），前者是未能表现，后者是不能表现，以可能性方式存在的事物并非任何时候都显现，在此基础上肯定与否定皆可。阿甘本当然不只是引用 Aristotle 这种简单的讨论，他同时提出了一些反对意见，Aristotle 将潜能（potentiality）视作有导向的实现活动，但这种观点无法适用于这样一类存在者：身份定义即有待于存在之物，而非其他东西。阿甘本认为人就是这种存在者，这种看法显然是受到了 Duns Scotus 和海德格尔的影响，特别是后者在 Being and Time 中的这句话——“它（此在）所包含的存在向来就是它有待去是的那个存在”（Its essence lies rather in the fact that in each case it has its Being to be, and has it as its own）。阿甘本所说的这种存在者就是“人”，其他生物具有被规定好（总会实现）的特殊潜能，而人则具有非潜能的可能，人的生命处于一种不受规制的可能性空间，由此与阿甘本生命政治理论对应起来。… (mehr)

1. Agamben points out the gaps in the Biopolitique's question of life, focusing on the potential dangers that Stato di eccezione (state of exception) reveals for all: The "state of exception" in which the law is suspended re-emerges as the sovereign of life management, and even the opposite of totalitarian management shares a set of methods with the "enemy." Suspension (Iustitium) is not to abolish the law, but to remove the restrictions imposed by the law on the sovereign itself, through the "interpretation of power" to enhance the sovereign's freedom of governance measures. The creation intention of the "state of exception" is to destroy itself in the future, and in the process of its function, it has completed the promotion of real power in secret.

2. Agamben points out the antagonism between Benjamin's (Messianic concept) and Schmidt's (sovereign theory) views on "the relationship between law and the 'state of exception'", and in contrast to Schmidt, who is indifferent to the fact that bare life cannot be redeemed, Agamben chooses to take Benjamin's position. Thus Agamben obtained a new way of interpreting the "messianic concept" - "messianic katargēsis of law"… (mehr)