The Unrealizable by Giorgio Agamben
A patient, genealogical investigation of the dichotomies that are foundational to the Western philosophical tradition.We are so used to distinguishing between the possible and the real, between essence and existence that we do not realize that these distinctions, which seem so obvious to us, are the result of a long and laborious process that has led to the splitting of being—the “matter” of thought—into two fragments that are both conflicting and intimately intertwined.
This book argues that the ontological-political machine of the West is based on the splitting of this “matter,” without which neither science nor politics would be possible. Without the partition of reality into essence and existence and into possibility and actuality, neither scientific knowledge nor the ability to control human action—which characterizes the historical power of the West—would have been possible.
If we could not suspend the exclusive concentration of our attention on what immediately exists (as animals seem to do), to think and define its essence, Western science and technology would not have experienced the advances that characterize them. And if the dimension of possibility disappeared entirely, neither plans nor projects would be thinkable, and human actions could be neither directed nor controlled. The incomparable power of the West has one of its essential presuppositions in this ontological machine.
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Holderlins Madness
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Puzzles
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The Kingdom and the Garden
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The Body of Language
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The Human Voice
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Name and Image
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Self-Portrait in the Studio
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As Cruel as Anyone Else
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The Unspeakable Girl
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Studiolo
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Fear Reverence Terror
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Literary Genres and Their Origins
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Orphism and Tragedy
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On Impotence
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Within the Sweet Noise of Life
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The Still Arrow
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Blinding Polyphemus
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The Labour of Spirit
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The Twilight of Politics
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The Immemorial
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A Test of Powers
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Taste
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Nymphs
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The World Machine
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The World Saved by Kids
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Secret Germany
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Spartakus
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An Essay on Negation
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The Idea of World
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Primo Levi
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The Church and the Kingdom
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This Body That Inhabits Me
Giorgio Agamben is one of Italy’s foremost contemporary thinkers. Seagull Books’s Italian List includes several of Agamben’s recent works. Alberto Toscano teaches at the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. He is the author of Fanaticism and Late Fascism and coeditor of The SAGE Handbook of Marxism.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781803094670 |
| ISBN 10 | 1803094672 |
| Title | The Unrealizable |
| Author | Giorgio Agamben |
| Series | The Italian List |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Seagull Books London Ltd |
| Year published | 2025-04-05 |
| Number of pages | 283 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |