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State of Exception

Front Cover
28 Reviews
University of Chicago Press, Jul 18, 2008 - Philosophy - 104 pages
Two months after the attacks of 9/11, the Bush administration, in the midst of what it perceived to be a state of emergency, authorized the indefinite detention of noncitizens suspected of terrorist activities and their subsequent trials by a military commission. Here, distinguished Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben uses such circumstances to argue that this unusual extension of power, or "state of exception," has historically been an underexamined and powerful strategy that has the potential to transform democracies into totalitarian states.

The sequel to Agamben's Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, State of Exception is the first book to theorize the state of exception in historical and philosophical context. In Agamben's view, the majority of legal scholars and policymakers in Europe as well as the United States have wrongly rejected the necessity of such a theory, claiming instead that the state of exception is a pragmatic question. Agamben argues here that the state of exception, which was meant to be a provisional measure, became in the course of the twentieth century a normal paradigm of government. Writing nothing less than the history of the state of exception in its various national contexts throughout Western Europe and the United States, Agamben uses the work of Carl Schmitt as a foil for his reflections as well as that of Derrida, Benjamin, and Arendt.

In this highly topical book, Agamben ultimately arrives at original ideas about the future of democracy and casts a new light on the hidden relationship that ties law to violence.
  

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Review: State of Exception

User Review  - Jai - Goodreads

I can't thank my Latin teacher enough for recommending this book. Once you read this, you'll start seeing "states of exception" everywhere and become slightly cynical of the political processes today. Read full review

Review: State of Exception

User Review  - Jeff Swift - Goodreads

Agamben explores the “state of exception,” or the moment at which a government suspends the rule of law in order to preserve itself. This state of exception was also explored in Locke, who argued that ... Read full review

All 28 reviews »

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Selected pages

Contents

1 The State of Exception as a Paradigm of Government
1
2 ForceofLaw
32
3 Iustitium
41
4 Gigantomachy Concerning a Void
52
5 Feast Mourning Anomie
65
6 Auctoritas and Potestas
74
References
89
Index of Names
93
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

acts anomic anomie aporias Article 48 auctor auctoritas and potestas Augustus authority become the rule Benjamin biopolitical Carl Schmitt citizen civil commissarial dictatorship concept conflict constituent power constitutional dictatorship consuls decision declared decree defined definition democracy difficulty Dio Cassius distinction emergency essential état de siège exception executive existence fact fiction fictitious figure find first force of law force-of-law Führer Führertum function Gratian human action imperium interrex issue iustitium juridical order jurists lacuna law la legge law’s legem non habet legis legislative living law Magdelain magistrate means military modern Mommsen necessitas legem necessity nexus Nissen nomos norm office ofthe originary paradigm parliament patres Political Theology possible precisely president public law public mourning pure violence reference regime regulated Reich relation Roman Rossiter Schmitt Schmitt’s theory seeks senatus consultum ultimum sense siege significant situation sovereign dictatorship specific sphere term theory of sovereignty tion tium tumult Weimar Weimar Constitution

References to this book

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References from web pages

State of emergency - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In State of Exception (2005), Giorgio Agamben has criticized this idea, arguing how the mechanism of the state of emergency deprives certain people of their ...
en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ State_of_emergency

Giorgio Agamben, State of Exception (Stato di eccezione ...
In Agamben's new book, State of Exception, a sequel to Homo Sacer, he draws explicitly on lectures delivered in New York and elsewhere in the years since ...
icon.oxfordjournals.org/ cgi/ content/ full/ 4/ 3/ 567

State of Exception | makeworlds
In his Political Theology, Carl Schmitt established the essential proximity between the state of exception and sovereignty. ...
www.makeworlds.org/ node/ 16

Fark Yaraları = Scars of Différance: Agamben - State of Exception
Here, distinguished Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben uses such circumstances to argue that this unusual extension of power, or "state of exception," has ...
farkyaralari.blogspot.com/ 2008/ 02/ agamben-state-of-exception.html

Clancco :: On Giorgio Agamben's <em>State of Exception</em>
A short little book (only 95 pages long), State of Exception takes an in-depth look at ... For Agamben, the state of exception is a fictional and mystical ...
www.clancco.com/ summary_judgment/ on_giorgio_agambens_state_of_exception.html

Press Action ::: Reflections on Tsunamis and the State of Exception
Review of State of Exception by Giorgo Agamben, translated by Kevin Attell. ... "The Tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the “state of exception” in ...
www.pressaction.com/ news/ weblog/ full_article/ cummings12292004/

WP 01 : The new state of Exception: The political and social ...
In this interview, Agamben discusses his latest book, The State of Exception, in relation to the latest developments in the ‘war on terror’. ...
www.libertysecurity.org/ mot60.html

translate.eipcp.net - To bring about the real state of exception
In a state of exception, they are linked fictitiously, and are thereby created for the first time in their form: “Life and law (…) result from the fracture ...
translate.eipcp.net/ strands/ 02/ diefenbach-strands01en

philosophy.com
The state of exception refers to exceptional events or conditions that fall ... Lucius Cornelius Sulla: a classic example of the state of exception in Rome: ...
www.sauer-thompson.com/ archives/ philosophy/ 2006/ 05/ state-of-except.html

the State of Exception
But one ends up identifying with an enemy whose structure one does not understand, and the theory of the State (and in particular of the state of exception, ...
www.notbored.org/ state-of-exception.html

About the author (2008)

Giorgio Agamben is professor of aesthetics at the University of Verona. He is the author of ten previous books, including the prequel to this one, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Kevin Attell is a writer and translator living in Berkeley, California. He is the translator of Agamben's The Open: Man and Animal.

Bibliographic information

QR code for State of Exception
TitleState of Exception
AuthorGiorgio Agamben
Translated byKevin Attell
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press, 2008
ISBN0226009262, 9780226009261
Length104 pages
Subjects › 

Philosophy / General
Philosophy / Political
Political Science / History & Theory
Political Science / Human Rights
  
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