The Open

Man and Animal

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by Giorgio Agamben,

Translated by Kevin Attell

Stanford University Press

Due/Published February 2004, 120 pages, paper

ISBN 0804747385

The end of human history is an event that has been foreseen or announced by both messianics and dialecticians. But who is the protagonist of that history that is coming--or has come--to a close? What is man? How did he come on the scene? And how has he maintained his privileged place as the master of, or first among, the animals?

In The Open, contemporary Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben considers the ways in which the "human" has been thought of as either a distinct and superior type of animal, or a kind of being that is essentially different from animal altogether. In an argument that ranges from ancient Greek, Christian, and Jewish texts to twentieth-century thinkers such as Heidegger, Benjamin, and Kojève, Agamben examines the ways in which the distinction between man and animal has been manufactured by the logical presuppositions of Western thought, and he investigates the profound implications that the man/animal distinction has had for disciplines as seemingly disparate as philosophy, law, anthropology, medicine, and politics.

Review

In recent years a variety of disciplines, philosophy among them, have examined the relationship between humans and animals. Perhaps most interesting, several theorists have provided provocative challenges to the conceptual frameworks that have traditionally distinguished man and animal. Giorgio Agamben’s new work enriches these efforts by exploring the construction of man’s image of himself in Western thought. More precisely, man’s belief in its non-animality has led to a sense of privilege in the world that allows for a mastery of nature. Agamben argues that this is essentially nihilistic and has cut humankind off from an openness to the world. Thus, beyond critiquing the traditional view of man’s sense of self, Agamben considers how we can relate to animals in a meaningful way. Agamben’s imaginative and well-written analysis examines the idea of man’s privileged place in nature by exploring a range of philosophical, religious, and artistic texts. He also looks at how Benjamin, Heidegger, and other thinkers have challenged man’s role in nature. With characteristic intellectual dexterity and boldness, Agamben offers us a provocative and important new work.