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Giorgio Agamben

Italian philosopher (b. 1942) · Italy · Academics

Giorgio Agamben is read about 659 times a day, in 44 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 22 September 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 367 days, one point a day.

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Italian philosopher whose idea of "bare life" - the zone where law strips people to raw biological existence - became the sharpest lens for reading sovereignty's dark edge. His work asks what happens when the state decides who counts as fully human.

AcademicsAcademicPhilosophyLiteratureItalyEurope20th Century

A life in dates

2021Dr. Leopold Lucas PrizeAward2009“In the eyes of authority - and maybe rightly so - nothing looks more like a terrorist than the ordinary man.”In their wordsWhat is an Apparatus?: And Other Essays (2009), Stanford University Press, p. 35.

2007Albertus-Magnus professorateAward2006Prix Européen de l'Essai Charles VeillonAward2005“One day humanity will play with law just as children play with disused objects, not in order to restore them to their canonical use but to free them from it for good.”In their wordsChapter Four, p. 64.

1993“If human beings were or had to be this or that substance, this or that destiny, no ethical experience would be possible...”In their wordsCh. 11 : Ethics

“Today, in the era of the complete triumph of the spectacle, what can be reaped from the heritage of Debord?”In their wordsCh. 18 : Shekinah

“Ease names perfectly that "free use of the proper" that, according to an expression of Friedrich Hölderlin's, is "the most difficult task.”In their wordspage 25.

“Matter that does not remain beneath form, but surrounds it with a halo.”In their wordsThe Coming Community (1993)

1942Born22 April 1942

Also in Deutsch

Photos 1

AgambenAgamben

In their own words 8

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Giorgio Agamben
,
8 statements, newest first

  1. In the eyes of authority - and maybe rightly so - nothing looks more like a terrorist than the ordinary man.

    2009, What is an Apparatus?: And Other Essays (2009), Stanford University Press, p. 35., Own words

  2. One day humanity will play with law just as children play with disused objects, not in order to restore them to their canonical use but to free them from it for good.

    2005, Chapter Four, p. 64., Own words

  3. If human beings were or had to be this or that substance, this or that destiny, no ethical experience would be possible...

    1993, Ch. 11 : Ethics, Own words

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Awards

Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize2021
Albertus-Magnus professorate2007
Prix Européen de l'Essai Charles Veillon2006

In their orbit

Spouse: Ginevra Bompiani

About this person

Born 22 April 1942, Agamben built a body of thought drawing on Aristotle, Roman law, Heidegger, Benjamin, and Carl Schmitt, interrogating how legal authority carves out spaces where normal rights vanish. His multi-volume Homo Sacer project, beginning with Sovereign Power and Bare Life in 1995 and continuing through State of Exception (2003), The Kingdom and the Glory (2007), and The Use of Bodies (2014), positioned him as one of continental philosophy's most influential voices, debated across political theory, jurisprudence, anthropology, and the humanities. He taught at universities in Verona, Macerata, Palermo, and Venice, and lectured widely across two continents. In 2004 he refused U.S. entry over biometric fingerprinting, which he compared to totalitarian bodily registration. During the COVID-19 pandemic his critiques of Italian lockdowns and vaccine passes as expansions of the state of exception drew sharp rebuke from public health experts and philosophers who saw a misreading of emergency, though some defended the consistency of his position.

Country
Italy
Category
Academics
Type
Academic
Status
living
Dates
Born 1942 · age 84

In common with Giorgio

Natalia GinzburgAlso in The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1965)Ninetto DavoliAlso in The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1965)Hugo SantiagoAlso in Maurice Blanchot (1998)Pier Paolo PasoliniAlso in The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1965)Paola TedescoAlso in The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1965)Alfonso GattoAlso in The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1965)

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