Agamben's Philosophical Lineage - Paperback

by Adam Kotsko (Editor), Carlo Salzani (Editor)

One of the greatest challenges Agamben presents to his readers is the vast and often bewildering range of sources he draws upon in his work. Looking at figures including Michel Foucault, St Paul, Nietzsche, the Marquis de Sade, Simone Weil and Hannah Arendt, this one-stop reference to Agamben's influences covers 30 thinkers: his primary interlocutors, his secondary references, and the figures who lurk in the background of his arguments without being directly mentioned.

Front Jacket

'Marrying philological dexterity with analytical acumen, this volume goes a very long way to rectify the often superficial way in which the writings of Giorgio Agamben have been treated in an academic discourse where citation often replaces understanding. The editors and contributors should be commended for providing us, at last, with the intellectual instruments to critically approach Agamben's creation and destruction of a sui generis philosophical tradition.' Alberto Toscano, Reader in Critical Theory, Goldsmiths, University of London A critical guide to the philosophy of Giorgio Agamben organised around the figures he discusses and critiques One of the greatest challenges Agamben presents to his readers is the vast and often bewildering range of sources he draws upon in his work. This volume is a one-stop reference for clarifying Agamben's relationship to the many figures he engages with. It covers his primary interlocutors and his more occasional and secondary points of reference, as well as figures who are often lurking in the background of his arguments but are seldom directly mentioned. The end result is a thorough overview of Agamben's philosophy, as illuminated by his practices of reading. Adam Kotsko is Assistant Professor of Humanities at Shimer College, Chicago. Carlo Salzani is Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the Pontificia Università Antonianum, Rome. Cover image: wall portrait of Agamben (c) Thierry Ehrmann. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN [PPC] 978-1-4744-2363-2 ISBN [cover] 978-1-4744-2364-9 Barcode

Author Biography

Adam Kotsko teaches in the Shimer Great Books School at North Central College, Chicago. He is the author of The Prince of This World: The Life and Legacy of the Devil (Stanford University Press, 2016), Creepiness (Zero Books, 2015), Why We Love Sociopaths: A Guide to Late Capitalist Television (Zero Books, 2012), Awkwardness: An Essay (Zero Books, 2010), Politics of Redemption: The Social Logic of Salvation (Continuum, 2010), Zizek and Theology (Continuum, 2008). He is co-author of Agamben's Coming Philosophy: Finding a New Use for Theology (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015).

Carlo Salzani is Research Fellow in the Department of Philosophy of the University of Innsbruck, Austria, Guest Scholar at the Messerli Research Institute of Vienna, Austria, and faculty member of the Paris Institute for Critical Thinking (PICT). His research interests focus on animal ethics, posthumanism, and biopolitics. Among his recent publications are the co-edited volumes A Responsibility to the World: Saramago, Politics and Philosophy (2023) and Animality in Contemporary Italian Philosophy (2020), and the books Agamben and the Animal (2022) and Walter Benjamin and the Actuality of Critique: Essays on Violence and Experience (2021).