Agamben and the Existentialists
Marcos Norris and Colby Dickinson
Abstract
Carl Schmitt cites Søren Kierkegaard in the first chapter of Political Theology to describe the repressed theological basis of sovereign decisionism. Following Jacob Taubes, Agamben blindly accepts Schmitt’s reading of the Kierkegaardian exception, a key existentialist concept that extends well beyond Kierkegaard to the decisionist philosophies of other existentialist thinkers. This volume aims to complicate Agamben’s antagonistic stance toward the Kierkegaardian exception in order to redefine his relationship to the existentialist tradition as a whole. For readers of Agamben, we draw attentio ... More
Carl Schmitt cites Søren Kierkegaard in the first chapter of Political Theology to describe the repressed theological basis of sovereign decisionism. Following Jacob Taubes, Agamben blindly accepts Schmitt’s reading of the Kierkegaardian exception, a key existentialist concept that extends well beyond Kierkegaard to the decisionist philosophies of other existentialist thinkers. This volume aims to complicate Agamben’s antagonistic stance toward the Kierkegaardian exception in order to redefine his relationship to the existentialist tradition as a whole. For readers of Agamben, we draw attention in his work to overlooked strains of existentialist thought to better explain the Homo Sacer series as a philosophical worldview. By presenting the “big picture” of Agamben’s project, we also confront scholars of existentialism with a philosopher who has not been previously categorized as “existentialist,” but whose work creatively repackages important existentialist themes in a politico-theological context.
Keywords:
Giorgio Agamben,
Existentialism,
political theology,
biopolitics,
secularization,
the death of God
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2021 |
Print ISBN-13: 9781474478779 |
| Published to Edinburgh Scholarship Online: May 2022 |
DOI:10.3366/edinburgh/9781474478779.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Marcos Norris, editor
Loyola University Chicago
Colby Dickinson, editor
Loyola University Chicago
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