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Cont Philos Rev (2010) 42:607611
DOI 10.1007/s11007-009-9122-0
Roberto Esposito: Termini della Politica. Comunit, Immunit, Biopolitica
Mimesis Edizioni, 2008, 193 pages, ISBN-13: 9788884836373, 16,00
Roberto Nigro
Published online: 12 January 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
Espositos latest work is a compilation of articles published in various journals over the last 10 years. Some of them appear here for the rst time. The book is a useful introduction to his work. Composed of three main parts, it accounts for the major issues of his thought. As Timothy Campbell sketches out in his long and insightful introduction to the volume, Esposito has been engaged in an in-depth analysis of the most signicant political and philosophical categories for more than 20 years. In his major works he has explored the notions of community (Communitas. Origin and Destiny of Community, Einaudi, Torino: 1998, forthcoming, Stanford 2009), immunity (Immunitas. Protection and Negation of Life, Einaudi, Torino: 2002), and biopolitics (Bios. Biopolitics and Philosophy, Einaudi, Torino: 2004, forthcoming, University of Minnesota 2008).
In Termini della politica, Esposito condenses to a few pages what is at issue in his main works. The book also gives evidence of the nal aspect of his thought: the elaboration of the notion of the impersonal or Third person, to which he recently devoted his work Terza persona. Politica della vita e losoa dellimpersonale (Einaudi, Torino: 2007).
What renders his work so challenging? Esposito intervenes in current philosophical debates by expanding on notions that are at the forefront of political discussions. His account of the notion of community echoes the debate that spread out in France in the Eighties with the important contributions by Jean-Luc Nancy, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Maurice Blanchot, Marguerite Duras and their references to Georges Bataille and Martin Heidegger. His focus on the notion of biopolitics draws on a concept that was initially elaborated by Michel Foucault in the second half of the Seventies and then came to play a major role in the works of Giorgio Agamben, Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt. However, Espositos analysis goes beyond a simple account of existing theories. Esposito creates new concepts
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that bring us to a better understanding of our present. He draws...