ne HOMO SACER eee eae Coren na “TRANSLATED BY DANIEL HELLER-ROAZEN The work of Giorgio Agamben, one of lialy’s most important and original Pe eee oes CLE eR es toes ditions of philosophy and rhetoric, the grammatians of late antiquity, Christian theology; and modern philosophy. Recently, Agamben has be- gun to direct his thinking to the constitution of the social and to some concrete, cthico-political conclusions concerning the state of society today, and the place of the individual within it. In Homo Sacer, Agamben ainas to connect the problem of pure possibil- ity, potentiality, and power with the problem of political and social ethi has f reer nreln een) exception to the rules he safeguards, and on anthro- research that reveals the close interfinking of the sacred and the jamben defines the sacred person as one who can be killed and iced—a paradox he sees as operative in the status of the mod- foment eee ENN OR a td Seana tol td uidvs OWOH Ce ene cD PO HOMO SACER Sovereign Power and Bare Life Giorgio Agamben TRANSLATED BY DANIEL HELLER-ROAZENHema Sacer: Sovereign ewer and Bare Lift ‘was orginally published ax Home acer I! pater sown ela ‘nuda vita, ©1995 Giulio Binaudi edicore spa, Stanford Universiy Pree Sefer, Calon st © 1998 by che Board of Trustees of the $2 Teland Sato anior Universsy 53 Prntd in che United Stes of Amesin coda appae at theca of he bok = Sr Se : 83 s4 5s 96 Contents Introduction PART ONE: THE LOGIC OF SOVERSIGNTY “The Paradox of Sovereignty “Nomos Basileus Potentiality and Law Form of Law ‘Threshold PART TWO: HOMO ACER Homo Sacer ‘The Ambivalence of the Sacted Sacied Life “Vitae Necisque Porestas’ Sovereign Body and Sacted Body ‘The Ban and the Wolf ‘Threshold viiContents PART THREE: THE CAMP AS BIOPOLITICAL and the Rights of Man Life That Does Not Deserve to Live ‘Politics, or Giving Form to the Life of 2 People’ ve Politicizing Death ‘The Camp as the ‘Nomos’ of the Modern. ‘Threshold Bibliography Index of Names Das Rech hat kein Dasein fe sch, sein Weseo viel ist das Leben der Menschen selbst, von einer Seite angevehen. —Sevigay Law bas no existence fr itself sather is essence lis, fom a certain petspesive, ia the very life of men, incr s¢ componi debsant, qui coalescerevolunt, rect inellgatur Hobbes Tae amar so ech ito he pho icinrwhaaor Ge makeup cl greamen, nd tow men must be agreed mang themes, at intend 0 gow Up Ingo 2 well-rounded State : ut® moi he entoléh8 eis an, cust eis thanaton. —Saine Paul ‘And the commandment, which was ordained eo lif, T Found tobe tanto death