Meaningless Authenticity

The Ethical Subject in Agamben's Early Works

Bibliographic Data

ID12643103
AuthorsSusan Dianne Brophy (0000-0003-1460-0034, Department of Sociology and Legal StudiesSt. Jerome's University in the University of Waterloo, Canada, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume16
Issue3
Pages246-263
Publication date2015-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical Horizons (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1440-9917 • E-ISSN: 1568-5160
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1179/1440991715z.00000000050
OpenAlexW1615962086
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited21

In this study of Giorgio Agamben's pre-Homo Sacer work, I assess his idea of the ethical subject. Over the course of these early writings, he adopts a Walter Benjamin-inspired redemptive aim as he endeavours to uncover the circumstances of alienated subjectivity and possibility of authentic experience. However, while Agamben borrows from Benjamin to elaborate on the ethical potential of the nihilist pose, a more Kantian conception of idealist autonomy becomes increasingly pronounced. This Kantianism is at odds with the Benjaminian nihilism that guides his redemptive prescription, leaving Agamben's ethical subject mired in a realm of meaningless authenticity

Autonomy · Epistemology · Immanence · Nihilism · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Realm · Sociology · State of exception · Subject (documents · Subjectivity · Law · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Psychology · Walter Benjamin Studies Compilation

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