Agamben and Indifference: A Critical Overview

Since the publication of Homo Sacer Giorgio Agamben has become one of the world's most revered and controversial thinkers. His ideas on our current political situation have found many supporters as well as garnering strong criticism from some quarters. While his wider thoughts on topics such as language, potentiality, life, law, messianism, power, and aesthetics have had significant impact on such diverse fields as philosophy, law, theology, history, sociology, politics, cultural and literary studies. Yet although Agamben is much read, his work has often been misunderstood. Agamben and Indifference aims to provide clarity around all the vexing issues that have been associated with Agamben's philosophy over the last two decades or more. The book is the first to fully take into account Agamben's important recent publications, which clarify his method, complete his ideas on power, and finally reveal the role of language in his overall system. Commenting in detail on these recent books alongside re-readings of the central texts from across Agamben's career, William Watkin presents a critical overview of Agamben's work that aims to give a portrait of exactly why this thinker of indifferent and suspensive legal, political, ontological and living states can rightfully be considered one of the most important philosophers in the world today. Read more