The Profane Land of the Happy
On the Messianic Promise in the Work of Giorgio Agamben
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3685033 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ype De Boer (Radboud University Nijmegen, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 808 |
| Publication date | 2023-06-19 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel14060808 |
| OpenAlex | W4381435640 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 8 |
This paper provides an interpretation of the enigmatic concept of 'happy life' in the philosophy of Giorgio Agamben. It departs from a recognition of the ambivalence in Agamben's use of sacred and profane terminology that informs this concept. In a decidedly Benjaminian frame, and with the help of esoteric religious images, happy life is described by Agamben as a messianic life and a blessed life, while he, at the same time, explicitly defines it as a perfectly profane life. Reading Agamben's philosophy as aspiring to a radical transformation of our mode of being in the world, I argue that the consistency in his idiosyncratic attitude toward the sacred and profane can be shown, and new light can be shed on the nature of happy life. Beyond prevailing negative characterizations that describe what happy life is not to be, the interpretation developed in this paper argues that it positively entails an ethos of love and a practice of use. As such, the paper aims to contribute to recent attempts at analyzing the curative and promissory aspects of Agamben's philosophy over and above its critical potential, and provide a basic outline of happy life that allows for comparative analysis with other contemporary authors on the notion of happiness
Aesthetics · Ambivalence · Epistemology · Ethos · Eudaimonia · Happiness · Linguistics · Terminology · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Philosophy · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2024 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |