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The Enigma of Giorgio Agamben

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2012

Justin Clemens
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
Nicholas Heron
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
Alex Murray
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
Justin Clemens
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
Nicholas Heron
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
Alex Murray
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
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Summary

Justin Clemens, Nicholas Heron and Alex Murray

The more clearly mathematics demonstrate that the total elimination of the problem of representation – which is boasted by every proper didactic system – is the sign of genuine knowledge, the more conclusively does it reveal its renunciation of that area of truth towards which language is directed. The methodological element in philosophical projects is not simply part of their didactic mechanism. This means quite simply that they possess a certain esoteric quality which they are unable to discard, forbidden to deny, and which they vaunt at their own peril.

Walter Benjamin

What sense, in fact, would there be to an inspired philosophy, unless it were possible to find something like a Muse of philosophy, unless it were possible to find an expression which, like the song of that most ancient of muses the Thebans called the Sphinx, would shatter to pieces in the very moment it unveiled its truth.

Giorgio Agamben

Every true philosopher introduces something new into the world, perhaps even a new world. This novelty is an essential phenomenon, not simply an accident or by-product of philosophy. As such, it cannot quite be evaluated, for no existing mode of thought is able to account fully for its emergence, its enunciation, its elaboration. Novelty is untimely, inasmuch as it irrupts into already established habits of thought, deranging or diverting customary modes of attention and expression, their rhythm and composition.

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Chapter
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The Work of Giorgio Agamben
Law Literature Life
, pp. 1 - 12
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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