Key Takeaways
1. Sovereignty's Paradox: Outside and Inside the Law
the sovereign stands outside the juridical order and, nevertheless, belongs to it, since it is up to him to decide if the constitution is to be suspended in toto
Sovereign's unique position. The core paradox of sovereignty, as defined by Carl Schmitt, is that the sovereign exists simultaneously outside and inside the legal system. They are the ultimate authority who can suspend the law, placing themselves above it, yet this power is granted by the law itself. This creates a fundamental tension at the heart of any legal order.
Law's self-suspension. This paradoxical structure means the law's validity depends on its ability to suspend itself in exceptional circumstances. The sovereign's decision on the state of exception doesn't just apply the law; it creates the very situation where law can apply. It's a limit concept where law borders on life and becomes indistinguishable from it.
Beyond juridical models. Understanding sovereignty requires moving beyond purely legal or institutional definitions. It's about the concrete way power operates at its limit, where it can legally place itself outside the law it creates and upholds. This hidden point of intersection between law and life is the original nucleus of sovereign power.
2. The State of Exception: Law's Suspension and Foundation
The exception does not subtract itself from the rule; rather, the rule, suspending itself, gives rise to the exception and, maintaining itself in relation to the exception, first constitutes itself as a rule.
Exclusion as inclusion. The state of exception is not chaos, but a specific situation resulting from the suspension of law. What is excluded from the rule (the exception) is included precisely through its exclusion, maintaining a relation to the rule in the form of its suspension. This is the "relation of exception."
Threshold of indistinction. The state of exception creates a paradoxical zone where fact and law become indistinguishable. It's not a factual situation, as it's created by suspending law, but it's not a purely legal case either. This threshold is where the juridico-political order establishes its space of validity.
Originary localization. The sovereign decision on the exception is the fundamental act of "localization" (Ortung). It doesn't just distinguish inside from outside, but traces the threshold (the state of exception) that makes the validity of the legal order possible. This unlocalizable zone is the hidden foundation of the "nomos of the earth."
3. Bare Life (Homo Sacer): Life That Can Be Killed But Not Sacrificed
The protagonist of this book is bare life, that is, the life of homo sacer (sacred man), who may be killed and yet not sacrificed, and whose essential function in modern politics we intend to assert.
An archaic figure. Homo sacer is an obscure figure from archaic Roman law, defined by two seemingly contradictory traits: anyone can kill him without committing homicide (impune occidi), yet he cannot be sacrificed according to ritual forms (neque fas est eum immolari). This status is a double exception from both human and divine law.
Beyond sacred and profane. This figure cannot be explained by the traditional concept of the sacred as simply august or accursed. Homo sacer is set outside human jurisdiction without being brought into the realm of divine law. His life is exposed to a violence that is neither sacrifice nor homicide, opening a sphere beyond both the religious and the profane.
Originary political element. The life of homo sacer is "sacred life" or "bare life" – life included in the juridical order solely in the form of its exclusion, its capacity to be killed. This bare life is the hidden nucleus of sovereign power, the originary political element that is captured in the sovereign ban.
4. The Ban (Abandonment): Law's Relation to Bare Life
The relation of exception is a relation of ban.
Law's peculiar force. The ban is the pure form of law's reference to something, its capacity to maintain itself in relation to an exteriority. It's the power of law to apply by not applying, to hold something in its force by abandoning it. This is the "force of law" at its most basic.
Delivered over to itself. He who is banned is not simply outside the law, but abandoned by it. They are exposed on a threshold where life and law, outside and inside, become indistinguishable. They are delivered over to their own separateness, yet simultaneously consigned to the mercy of the one who abandons them.
Simultaneous inclusion/exclusion. The ban signifies both exclusion from the community and the sovereign's command. It's a force of simultaneous attraction and repulsion that ties together bare life and sovereign power. This ambiguous structure is the most original juridico-political relation, preceding concepts like friend/enemy or citizen/foreigner.
5. Sovereign Power's Origin: The Power Over Bare Life
Not simple natural life, but life exposed to death (bare life or sacred life) is the originary political element.
Vitae Necisque Potestas. The Roman concept of vitae necisque potestas (power over life and death), originally designating the father's absolute authority over his sons, is the first instance where "life" acquires a specific juridical sense as the counterpart of a power threatening death. This power is absolute, not a sanction, but inherent in the relationship.
Genealogy of power. This paternal power was seen as analogous to the magistrate's imperium. The idea that the magistrate's authority derived from the father's power over life and death suggests that the foundation of political life is a life that can be killed, politicized precisely through its capacity to be killed.
Bare life as political element. The male citizen, capable of participating in public life, was virtually subject to this power of death. Life enters the city only through the double exception of being killable but not sacrificable. This bare life, dwelling in the no-man's-land between the home (oikos) and the city (polis), is the originary political element from the perspective of sovereignty.
6. Sovereign and Sacred Bodies: A Hidden Symmetry
The two formulas only signify sovereign power's continuity to the extent that they express, by means of the hidden tie to life that can be killed but not sacrificed, sovereign power's absoluteness.
Beyond perpetuity. The medieval doctrine of the king's two bodies (natural and political) is often seen as ensuring the perpetuity of sovereignty ("The king never dies"). However, its connection to Roman imperial apotheosis and the use of wax effigies points to a darker origin: the representation of a "sacred life" that survives the natural body.
Excess of sacred life. The Roman rite of burning an effigy after the emperor's death suggests an excess of sacred life, like that of a devotee who survives consecration, which must be neutralized or divinized. This sacred life, killable but not sacrificable, is inherent in supreme power itself.
Symmetry with Homo Sacer. The sovereign's person, like homo sacer, is outside the normal law of homicide. Killing a sovereign is treason, not murder. Modern constitutions still reflect this in the principle that heads of state cannot undergo ordinary trials. This symmetry reveals that supreme power is, in the last analysis, the capacity to constitute oneself and others as life that may be killed but not sacrificed.
7. The Werewolf: Bare Life as a Zone of Indistinction
The life of the bandit, like that of the sacred man, is not a piece of animal nature without any relation to law and the city.
The outlaw as wolf-man. Ancient Germanic law defined the outlaw (wargus) as a "wolf-man" (wulfesheud), a figure who could be killed by anyone without penalty. This figure, like homo sacer, is not simply an animal, but a threshold being, dwelling between the forest (nature) and the city (law), belonging to neither.
Hobbesian state of nature. The Hobbesian state of nature, where "man is a wolf to men" (homo hominis lupus), echoes this figure. It's not a pre-legal state, but an exception within the city where everyone is bare life, a homo sacer for others. This zone of indistinction between human and animal, nature and law, is the constant presupposition of sovereignty.
Ban's ambiguity. The werewolf embodies the ambiguity of the ban: excluded from the city, yet existing in a state defined by the city's law (caput lupinum is a legal status). This figure reveals that the state tie, having the form of a ban, is always also non-State and pseudo-nature, and nature always appears as nomos and exception.
8. Biopolitics: The Politicization of Natural Life
modern man is an animal whose politics calls his existence as a living being into question
Life as political stake. At the threshold of modernity, natural life (zoē) begins to be included in state power's mechanisms and calculations, transforming politics into biopolitics. Unlike classical thought, where zoē was confined to the home, modern politics makes simple living itself a central concern.
From territory to population. Foucault traced this shift from the "territorial state" to the "state of population," where the nation's health and biological life become problems for sovereign power. This leads to a "bestialization of man" through sophisticated political techniques, enabling both life protection and holocaust.
Convergence with totalitarianism. Hannah Arendt noted the rise of homo laborans and biological life to the center of the political scene. The failure to connect this to totalitarian power (which Foucault also didn't fully analyze in this context) highlights the difficulty of grasping how politics, when it takes bare life as its object, can turn into total domination.
9. Rights of Man: Bare Life as the Foundation of Modern Politics
Declarations of rights represent the originary figure of the inscription of natural life in the juridico-political order of the nation-state.
Birth as source of rights. Modern declarations of rights, like the French Declaration of 1789, place bare natural life (birth) at the foundation of the political order. "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights." This is a radical shift from earlier forms of freedom based on status or privilege.
Man vanishes into citizen. The paradox is that the natural life grounding the order immediately vanishes into the figure of the citizen, in whom these rights are "preserved." Rights are attributed to man only insofar as he is the presupposition of the citizen. The nation, etymologically linked to birth, closes this circle.
Biopolitical foundation. The nation-state's biopolitical vocation stems from this: its basis is not the free political subject, but man's bare life, invested with sovereignty through the passage from subject to citizen. The fiction is that birth immediately equals nation, concealing the underlying bare life that can be discriminated against (e.g., active vs. passive rights, denationalization).
10. Life Unworthy of Being Lived: Biopolitics' Thanatopolitical Turn
In modern biopolitics, sovereign is he who decides on the value or the nonvalue of life as such.
Sovereignty over existence. The concept of "life unworthy of being lived" (lebensunwerten Lebens), introduced by Binding and Hoche in 1920 to justify euthanasia, posits man's sovereignty over his own existence. This sovereignty, like the state of exception, is a threshold the law cannot simply forbid or permit.
Threshold of nonvalue. From this individual sovereignty, the authors derive the possibility of killing lives that have lost their "legal good" quality. This new juridical category corresponds to bare life, a threshold beyond which life has no juridical value and can be eliminated without punishment.
Biopolitics becomes thanatopolitics. Every "politicization" of life implies a decision on the threshold where life ceases to be politically relevant and becomes "sacred life" that can be killed. Nazism, as the first radically biopolitical state, made this decision central, transforming natural heredity into a political task and identifying "life unworthy of being lived" as the target of its thanatopolitics.
11. The Camp: The Biopolitical Paradigm of Modernity
The camp -- and not the prison -- is the space that corresponds to this originary structure of the nomos.
Born of exception. Camps are not products of ordinary law or criminal law, but of the state of exception and martial law extended to civilian populations. The Nazi Lager was based on Schutzhaft (protective custody), a measure allowing detention independent of criminal behavior, grounded in the suspension of constitutional rights.
Exception becomes rule. The novelty of the Nazi camps was that Schutzhaft was separated from the temporary state of exception and made permanent. The camp is the space where the state of exception, the possibility of deciding on which founds sovereignty, is realized normally. It's a permanent spatial arrangement outside the normal order.
Space of bare life. The camp is a hybrid of law and fact where the two are indistinguishable. Inhabitants are stripped of political status, reduced to bare life. It's the most absolute biopolitical space, where power confronts pure life without mediation. The camp is the paradigm of modern political space where politics becomes biopolitics and homo sacer merges with the citizen.
12. The People: Ambiguity of the Political Subject
One term thus names both the constitutive political subject and the class that is, de facto if not de jure, excluded from politics.
Dual meaning. In European languages, the word "people" (popolo, peuple) simultaneously designates the collective body of citizens (the sovereign) and the lower, excluded classes (the poor, the disinherited). This linguistic ambiguity reflects a fundamental tension in modern politics.
Sovereign and excluded. The same term names both the source of political legitimacy (popular sovereignty) and those who are often marginalized or excluded from full participation. This duality was evident even during the French Revolution, where compassion for "le peuple" (the unfortunate) was central to revolutionary rhetoric.
Bare life within the body politic. This ambiguity suggests that the "people" as a political body always contains within it "the people" as bare life, the excluded. The sovereign body politic is founded on and constantly confronts this bare life, which is simultaneously included and excluded, revealing the ban's structure at the heart of democracy.
Last updated:
FAQ
What is Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life by Giorgio Agamben about?
- Core exploration: The book investigates the relationship between sovereign power and "bare life," focusing on how political systems include life by excluding it, using the ancient Roman figure of homo sacer as a key example.
- Philosophical and political analysis: Agamben examines the paradoxes at the heart of Western political thought, especially the ways in which law and life, inclusion and exclusion, and right and fact become indistinguishable.
- Modern relevance: The work traces the historical and philosophical roots of biopolitics, showing how the management and control of life itself has become central to modern politics.
- Critical aim: Agamben seeks to rethink foundational political categories by exposing the mechanisms through which sovereign power operates.
Why should I read Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life by Giorgio Agamben?
- Understanding modern politics: The book provides a powerful framework for analyzing how states exercise control over life, especially in times of crisis or emergency.
- Insight into biopolitics: Agamben’s analysis is crucial for anyone interested in the intersection of law, politics, and the body, especially in the context of contemporary issues like states of emergency, refugee crises, and surveillance.
- Philosophical depth: The text engages deeply with thinkers like Aristotle, Schmitt, Foucault, and Benjamin, making it essential reading for students of political philosophy.
- Challenging established categories: Readers will gain tools to question and critique the foundations of sovereignty, democracy, and legal order.
What are the key takeaways from Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life by Giorgio Agamben?
- Sovereign power’s paradox: Sovereignty is defined by the ability to decide on the exception, placing the sovereign both inside and outside the law.
- Bare life as foundation: The inclusion of bare life through its exclusion is the originary act of political power, shaping both ancient and modern political structures.
- State of exception as norm: The state of exception, where law is suspended, is not an anomaly but the foundation of modern governance, especially in biopolitical regimes.
- Contemporary implications: The book’s insights help explain phenomena like concentration camps, refugee zones, and the politicization of life and death in modern states.
What are the best quotes from Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life by Giorgio Agamben and what do they mean?
- “The sovereign is he who decides on the exception.” This quote, echoing Carl Schmitt, highlights the sovereign’s unique power to suspend the law and create a space where normal rules do not apply.
- “The camp is the space that is opened when the state of exception begins to become the rule.” Agamben uses this to show how spaces like concentration camps reveal the true logic of modern political power.
- “Law has no existence for itself; rather its essence lies, from a certain perspective, in the very life of men.” This reflects Agamben’s argument that law is always tied to life, but only through a process of exclusion.
- “Homo sacer is life that may be killed but not sacrificed.” This phrase encapsulates the paradoxical status of bare life, which is excluded from both legal and religious protection.
How does Giorgio Agamben define "bare life" in Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life and why is it important?
- Definition: Bare life (zoē) is life stripped of political and legal qualities, exposed to sovereign power without protection, and can be killed but not sacrificed.
- Political significance: It is included in the political order only through its exclusion, forming the foundation of sovereignty and the state of exception.
- Modern implications: The politicization of bare life is the decisive event of modernity, making life itself the object of political power and control.
- Central to biopolitics: Understanding bare life is essential for grasping how modern states manage populations and exercise power over life and death.
What is the figure of "homo sacer" in Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life by Giorgio Agamben, and what does it represent?
- Roman law origin: Homo sacer is a figure from Roman law who may be killed by anyone without it being considered homicide, yet cannot be sacrificed in religious rites.
- Embodiment of bare life: This figure exemplifies life that is excluded from both political and religious communities, existing in a threshold between life and death.
- Symbol of sovereign power: Homo sacer reveals the paradox of sovereign power, which can exclude certain lives from legal protection while maintaining control over them.
- Political relevance: The concept is used to expose the foundational role of bare life in Western political structures and the intimate link between sovereignty and the power over life.
What is the "paradox of sovereignty" in Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life by Giorgio Agamben?
- Dual position of the sovereign: The sovereign is both inside and outside the juridical order, able to suspend the law while still belonging to the legal system.
- Exception as foundation: The state of exception is not chaos but a suspension of law that creates a threshold where law and fact, inside and outside, become indistinguishable.
- Relation of ban: The sovereign ban is a form of relation where life is included solely through its exclusion, exposing the one banned to abandonment.
- Constitutive ambiguity: This paradox is central to understanding how political power is constituted and maintained.
What is the "state of exception" in Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life by Giorgio Agamben, and why is it crucial?
- Definition: The state of exception is a condition where normal law is suspended by sovereign power, creating a legal and political void.
- Zone of indistinction: It blurs the boundaries between law and fact, inclusion and exclusion, and political and natural life, producing bare life as its effect.
- Foundation of sovereignty: Agamben argues that the state of exception is not an anomaly but the very foundation of sovereign power.
- Modern implications: The normalization of the state of exception underpins biopolitical governance and challenges traditional legal and political categories.
How does Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life by Giorgio Agamben connect the concepts of "bare life" and modern biopolitics?
- Bare life as political subject: In modern biopolitics, bare life becomes the central subject, with the state managing and regulating biological life itself.
- Totalitarianism and democracy: Both totalitarian regimes and modern democracies inscribe bare life at their core, making the management of life a central political concern.
- Camp as paradigm: The concentration camp is presented as the ultimate biopolitical space where bare life is exposed to absolute sovereign power.
- Continuity and danger: The book warns that the politicization of life can lead to totalitarian tendencies even within democratic societies.
What is the significance of the "ban" in Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life by Giorgio Agamben?
- Original political relation: The ban (exclusion) is the fundamental political act that creates the state of exception, separating bare life from the political community.
- Simultaneous inclusion and exclusion: The banned individual is both excluded from the community and included in the sovereign's power, embodying the paradox of political life.
- Historical roots: Agamben traces the ban to ancient legal and religious practices, showing its persistence in modern political structures.
- Contemporary relevance: The ban underlies modern forms of exclusion, such as refugee status and statelessness, highlighting the ongoing relevance of bare life and sovereign power.
How does Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life by Giorgio Agamben use the concentration camp as a paradigm for modern politics?
- Camp as space of exception: The camp is the physical and juridical space where the state of exception is realized permanently, suspending normal law and exposing bare life to sovereign power.
- Indistinction of law and fact: In the camp, the distinction between legal rule and factual situation disappears, making every act possible and unaccountable under normal legal standards.
- Biopolitical extreme: The camp represents the ultimate biopolitical space where life is reduced to its barest form and subjected to absolute control and potential extermination.
- Contemporary manifestations: Agamben argues that the camp is not merely a historical anomaly but the hidden matrix of modern political spaces, such as refugee zones and detention centers.
What are the implications of Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life by Giorgio Agamben for understanding the concept of "people" and political community?
- Ambiguity of "people": The term "people" denotes both the sovereign political body and the excluded, impoverished masses, reflecting a fundamental biopolitical fracture.
- Dialectic of inclusion and exclusion: The people embody both inclusion in political sovereignty and exclusion as bare life, revealing the internal division within political communities.
- Historical and contemporary relevance: This duality explains phenomena such as class conflict, ethnic cleansing, and the persistence of excluded populations within modern states.
- Biopolitical challenge: Understanding this ambiguity is crucial for imagining a politics that transcends the division between bare life and political existence.
Review Summary
Homo Sacer explores the concept of "bare life" and its relation to sovereign power. Agamben argues that modern politics reduces individuals to biological entities, stripping them of rights and citizenship. He examines the state of exception, where law and politics become indistinguishable, and connects this to concentration camps as the paradigm of modern political space. Readers find the book challenging but thought-provoking, praising its insights into biopolitics and contemporary governance. Some criticize Agamben's exaggerated claims and dense writing style, while others appreciate his unique perspective on political theory.
Similar Books










Download PDF
Download EPUB
.epub
digital book format is ideal for reading ebooks on phones, tablets, and e-readers.