Laurent de Sutter
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780823283798
- eISBN:
- 9780823285921
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823283798.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Giorgio Agamben’s celebrated research in the field of legal ontology has led him to devise a distinction between an ontology of being and an ontology of command—two traditions he divided that Western ...
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Giorgio Agamben’s celebrated research in the field of legal ontology has led him to devise a distinction between an ontology of being and an ontology of command—two traditions he divided that Western philosophy has always presented as united. But, behind this division and the supersedence of one ontology over the other, Agamben has himself fallen into the trap he wanted to avoid and actually given back to philosophy what it wanted to take from law but had always been a part of philosophy. Another path should be chosen: a path away from “being” as well as “ought-to-be”—the path of maybe. This is what this chapter will argue.Less
Giorgio Agamben’s celebrated research in the field of legal ontology has led him to devise a distinction between an ontology of being and an ontology of command—two traditions he divided that Western philosophy has always presented as united. But, behind this division and the supersedence of one ontology over the other, Agamben has himself fallen into the trap he wanted to avoid and actually given back to philosophy what it wanted to take from law but had always been a part of philosophy. Another path should be chosen: a path away from “being” as well as “ought-to-be”—the path of maybe. This is what this chapter will argue.
