Giorgio Agamben is an Italian philosopher best known for his work investigating the concepts of the state of exception, form-of-life (borrowed from Ludwig Wittgenstein) and homo sacer.

10 Nov 2015
5:00pm – 7:30pm
Lecture Theatre, Ben Pimlott Building

With the publication of L’uso dei corpi (The Use of Bodies) and the short volume Stasis, Giorgio Agamben’s Homo Sacer series, comprising 9 books, has been brought to a close – if not, by his own lights, an actual completion. This roundtable will take up the task of an initial critical assessment of this remarkably influential project by homing in on a number of salient and thorny themes across its multiple volumes, with a particular focus on the interweaving and displacement of politics, ontology and anthropology in Agamben’s work. Among the themes under consideration will be the question of “(global)civil war,” the place of slavery in Agamben’s understanding of biopolitics, the “apocalyptic tone” in his philosophy, and the figure of surplus populations.

With Benjamin Noys (University of Chichester), Jason E. Smith (Art Center College of Design), Alberto Toscano (Goldsmiths), Jessica Whyte (University of Western Sydney)

For more information on the Centre for Philosophy and Critical Thought, please visit our web page:http://www.gold.ac.uk/cpct/