Form of Life: Agamben and the Destitution of Rules
- Discusses Agamben’s political thought and the question of anarchy
- Re-evaluates Agamben’s thought in light of his later works and the recent completion of the Homo Sacer series
- Considers Agamben’s related works on use, praxis, inoperativity, and destitutio
- Outlines a theoretical framework through which to think of a non-state and non-legal politics
- Explores underappreciated influences of Agamben’s philosophy
The concept of a form-of-life is the centre of gravity around which Agamben has advanced his attempts to think of an alternative politics. It refers to a living dimension that has overthrown the structures of power in which humans are supposedly destined to live, disclosing the possibility of a new understanding of political and legal life. By placing ‘form-of-life’ in the context of contemporary philosophy, this book re-imagines anew some of the basic categories of human socialities – such as work, rights, obligation, property, and use. It explores the ways in which Agamben’s philosophy might be a strategic resource for developing political and legal strategies that leave behind a situation dominated by pervasive sovereign violence.
At a moment of history in which the fundamental promises of Western modernity are undergoing a decisive crisis, to look beyond the basic categories of human social institutions becomes an urgency. Through a close engagement with Agamben’s concept of form-of-life, this book seeks to challenge the current crisis of juridical, political and economic reality.
Introduction
Chapter 1: Form-of-Life
Chapter 2: The Theory and Practice of Destituent Potential
Chapter 3: Doing and Undoing Law
Chapter 4: Inoperative Being: Against Work
Chapter 5: On Use, Law and the Common
Chapter 6: From the Anarchy of Power to the Anarchy of Being
Conclusions: Six Theses on Form-of-life
Bibliography.
This book is like a mirror in which dispersed pieces of Agamben’s thinking are brilliantly reconstituted into a new constellation. Being a great thinker of anarchy, Fusco portrays Agamben as a theoretician of life emancipated from the curse of power. A redemption act to Agamben, a must-read for Agamben scholars.
This is one of the best books on Agamben in recent years and essential reading for any Agamben scholar. More than it is an original and wide-raging book that is immensely useful in its consideration of our understanding of sovereignty and form of life in critical jurisprudence. It is fascinating reading for anyone interested in Agamben’s biopolitics in the context of Schmitt’s decisionism, Wittgenstein’s form of life, law and, crucially, the essential recent body work of Agamben published in the last two decades. This will be a book we return to again and again in the years to come.
