The Open: Man and Animal 1st Edition

by Giorgio Agamben (Author), Kevin Attell (Translator)

7 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0804747387

ISBN-10: 0804747385

Why is ISBN important?

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Share

Condition: Used - Very Good

In Stock. Sold by dandylionbooks, Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

68 Used from $5.92

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.

Select delivery location

Turn on 1-Click ordering

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Save an extra $1.03 when you apply this coupon.

Details

$1.03 extra savings coupon applied at checkout.

Details

Sorry. You are not eligible for this coupon.

This item ships to France. Want it Tuesday, July 3? Order within and choose AmazonGlobal Priority Shipping at checkout. Learn more

List Price: $20.95
Save: $4.19 (20%)

53 New from $16.76

Select delivery location

Turn on 1-Click ordering

More Buying Choices

53 New from $16.76 68 Used from $5.92

121 used & new from $5.92

See All Buying Options

Free%20Two-Day%20Shipping%20for%20College%20Students%20with%20Amazon%20Student

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.

Frequently bought together

+
+

Total price: $66.43

One of these items ships sooner than the other. Show details

Buy the selected items together

This item:The Open: Man and Animal by Giorgio Agamben Paperback $16.76
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
The Animal That Therefore I Am (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy) by Jacques Derrida Paperback $25.20
Only 4 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping. Details
When Species Meet (Posthumanities) by Donna J. Haraway Paperback $24.47
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Jacques Derrida

7

Paperback
$25.20
Donna J. Haraway

7

Paperback
$24.47
Jane Bennett

19

Paperback
$22.75
Donna Haraway

9

Paperback
$12.95
Giorgio Agamben

25

Paperback
$18.36
Jakob von Uexküll

3

Paperback
$20.00

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[The Open] turns to perhaps the most basic distinction of existence: that between human beings and animals. The thin volume provides an impressive historical survey of the problem, offering a dizzying scope of debate over the nature of animality, including expositions of figures as diverse as Thomas Aquinas, Georges Bataille, Heidegger, Alexander Kojève, Benjamin, and the German zoologist Jakob von Uexküll." (Radical Philosophy Review)

From the Inside Flap

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product details

Series: Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics
Paperback: 120 pages
Publisher: Stanford University Press; 1 edition (October 23, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0804747385
ISBN-13: 978-0804747387
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 7 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #243,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #223 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Movements > Humanism
- #334 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Philosophy > Ethics
- #592 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Anthropology > General

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Be the first video

Your name here

Customer Reviews

3.3 out of 5 stars

2 star (0%)

Write a customer review

See all 7 customer reviews

Top customer reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Saul Boulschett

erudition as art as thought as action

June 8, 2004

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

A magisterial meditation on the question of the "human" -- used as an adjective. This short book is Agamben's 'Duino Elegies': thalassically poetic and swirling with thought that hovers, indifferent to the gravity of common sense.
The title refers to Heidegger's term for the possibility of Dasein but Agamben is not doing a pro-Heidegger critique here. The Italian is thinking against the German: Agamben mentions that Heidegger was in fact the harshest separator of man and animal in modern thought, denying animals the very possibility of ever seeing the OFFEN (Open) that is (supposedly) available to man alone. But forget Heidegger--the book's not about him. Agamben questions the very ground of Western thought that made it possible for Marty to make such an inhumane declaration at all.
Agamben's meditation begins with a medieval illustration that depicts the world after the end of the world (post-judgment) in which all the Saved are shown with various animal heads. Agamben wants to know what to make of this strange, unexplained overlapping of man and animal.
And so he weaves a series of tales -- each only a few pages long and Kafkaesque in their brevity, mysteriousness, and flash of insight -- of how the idea that man and animal are two separate categories of being came to be. He weaves by unraveling the secret codes, the invisible knots that have held, and still hold, the most basic assumptions that drive Western thought, beginning with theology / philosophy and now, the bio-sciences.
I was startled to learn how seemingly silly hair-splitting arguments of the theologians concerning the resurrected body could be so consequential later in the modern age in the formulation (and separation) of man and animal. An example: Would the intestines of the resurrected be full or empty? If full, then what to do about the problem of excrement in the Kingdom of God? If empty, is it because they are no longer needed? And if that is the case, what have them at all? Etc.
(BTW, it was decided that there would be no animals in Heaven.)
Agamben continues here what he began in his earlier works -- namely the meaning and consequence of NAKED or RAW LIFE, devoid of any qualifiers, such as "human" such that a "human" being becomes just a living thing.
Agamben states that his purpose is to expose and figure out a way to stop what he calls the 'anthropological machine' whose rise and history made possible the most "logical" outcome of such thinking: The Holocaust. But Agamben does not limt the phenomenon of the Holocaust only to what happened to the Jews --he extends it the entire spectrum of modern political thinking that permits the stripping of human beings of humanity. (See HOMO SACER.)
Having said all that, I must confess, one cannot possibly do justice to this book by summarizing Agamben's little molecules of thought, so compact and phosphorescent are they.

53 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

January 18, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The open provides us with the significant thought of what the human being is in the planet.

Amazon Customer

August 23, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

good book, good seller!

Tough to read, but the ending was worth the trudge.

January 30, 2016

Format: Paperback

Agamben is particularly hard to read here. There is a lot of aesthetics involved, and a lot of reference to theology. We had a really hard time explaining to non-Judeo-Christians in Japan what all this eschatology and body/mind stuff were about. And his style is more cryptic here than "Remnants of Auschwitz" or "Homo Sacer." But that being said, I really appreciated the last 4 chapters of the book, where I finally got an idea of Agamben's general project, and his vision for a human being that doesn't try too hard to be what it is.

One person found this helpful

A customer

June 4, 2004

Format: Paperback

This is a pathbreaking book that explores the unstable frontier between what we consider human and what we still define as animal. This book paves the way for other attempts to discuss this crucial difference which has been relatively unexplored. Agamben achieves a genealogy of the anthropological machine (as he calls it) from the Hebrew Bible to Heidegger and Foucault. I wonder why he didn't explore another barrier that this book also leaves open: the difference between human and machine, which usually accompanies the problematization of the diad animal-human (think about Junger's organische konstruktion and
Spengler Der Mensch und die Technik). This is an intelligent and well written book although I wish it would have been longer. Why not an essay on Aristotle's zoon politikon or on Nietszche's blond beast? I guess I will have to wait for his next book.

28 people found this helpful

3 1/2 stars is more apt for a half-way amazing book

April 25, 2009

Format: Paperback

As a quick note on my position, I have reservations about Agamben's work. Firstly, as an academic with his stated credentials (studying under Heidegger, assisting Italo Calvino, acquaintances with Derrida, Lyotard, Klossowski, etc.) and his professorial position, it is surprising his sparse use of citations. He often incorporates summations and quotations into his own text, which allows for a very fluid reading. It does, however, lead one to take him at his word. Secondly, I find Agamben to be overly abstract and opaque for a practical position for his chosen philosophical problems. He likes to use these general, hopeful terms like 'coming community' to point at some nebulous future state of being that is very unclear as to how it is supposed to come into being. Yes, with the abandonment of the 'state of exception' and for a qualitative approach to life and not simply it's basic needs ('bare life'). But how? And I mean exactly how? Why can't he articulate a position on these dire circumstances with their overcoming? Agamben is very willing to diagnose the problem, in rather confusing terms at times, but never, ever to prescribe. I understand that one is solely responsible for defining one's own being, but this is highly dubious at best for any sort of political praxis and leads me to question Agamben's viability and dedication to his own prophetic outcomes. He suffers from some of the same criticisms leveled against Walter Benjamin, Foucault, and Derrida in my eyes. This is more troubling as he should know better as a result.

This being said, "The Open" is a beautifully mind provoking read. Agamben delivers a quick and engaging overview of philosophical and theological debates as to what separates man from animal. It becomes very apparent that there has been a very thin line between the two. His narrative on early scientific classifications of man and other animals is a very fascinating read. The chapters dealing with Heidegger are particularly dense. These suffer too much from Agamben engaging in Heidegger's ontological word games. It can be a rewarding slog though as he points to some very curious moments in Heidegger's thought on the defining ontological basis of animals (this also being where the title of the book comes from). In short, the question "What is animal?" has been repeatedly answered with "All that is not man." Consequently, "What is man?" has never been answered. This book left me with some rather disturbing questions related to my own thinking on the subject and a very critical mindset to bring to previously acquired and, hopefully, soon to always be acquired knowledge. And for this, I'll err on the side of four instead of 3 with no halves. And this book deserves a half as it itself is only a half book.

Meaning that this book didn't appease my reservations about Agamben. Yet again, there is this pointing at - ? or this feeling of arriving at some great breakthrough that propels you through the book to the inevitable let down. I was left seriously wanting more and a little frustrated. And as this is a constant in reading Agamben for me, it unfortunately leads me to doubt the efficacy of his position. Of course, what that position is, exactly, is also very difficult to elucidate. OK, so man has never been adequately defined and therefore it's definition becomes open. Now, how does one define it or even approach a definition to bring that lovely sounding 'coming community'? And yet again, historical and philosophical points are dropped into the text on a faith basis. This leaves the reader to spend, at the very least, several hours in a library researching to verify or further explore the anecdotes Agamben addresses instead of a very quick, simple citation in the text that one could quickly look up. Agamben himself may have considerable credibility with his peers, but his text lacks it.

22 people found this helpful

Most recent customer reviews

95% Heidegger, 3% Rilke, 2% Agamben, 100% Vapid Logorrhea

To employ a term that Heidegger himself would approve of, Agamben's "The Open: Man and Animal" is nothing but Quatsch, or more precisely: Quatsch mit Soße.Read more

Published on November 2, 2014

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

The Open: Man and Animal

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway

This item: The Open: Man and Animal

Set up a giveaway

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Jakob von Uexküll

3

Paperback
$20.00
Donna J. Haraway

7

Paperback
$24.47
Jacques Derrida

7

Paperback
$25.20
Giorgio Agamben

25

Paperback
$18.36
Giorgio Agamben
Hardcover
$12.95
Donna J. Haraway

23

Paperback
$21.75

English United States

Conditions of Use
Privacy Notice
Interest-Based Ads
© 1996-2018, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates