Monasticism (from Greek ''μοναχός'', ''monachos'', derived from Greek ''monos'', alone) is a religious way of life characterized by the practice of renouncing worldly pursuits to fully devote one's self to spiritual work. The origin of the word is from Ancient Greek, and the idea originally related to Buddhist monks in 550 B.C.

In the Christian tradition, males pursuing a monastic life are usually called ''monks'' or ''brethren'' (brothers), and if females ''nuns'' or ''sisters''. Both monks and nuns may also be called ''monastics''. Some other religions also include monastic elements, most notably Buddhism, but also Hinduism and Jainism, though the expressions differ considerably.

Buddhist monasticism

The Sangha or community of ordained Buddhist bhikkhus (similar to monks) and original bhikkhunis (similar to nuns) was founded by Gautama Buddha during his lifetime over 2500 years ago. This communal monastic lifestyle grew out of the lifestyle of earlier sects of wandering ascetics, some of whom the Buddha had studied under. It was initially fairly eremetic or reclusive in nature. Bhikkhus and bhikkunis were expected to live with a minimum of possessions, which were to be voluntarily provided by the lay community. Lay followers also provided the daily food that bhikkhus required, and provided shelter for bhikkhus when they were needed.

After the Parinibbana (Final Passing) of the Buddha, the Buddhist monastic order developed into a primarily cenobitic or communal movement. The practice of living communally during the rainy vassa season, prescribed by the Buddha, gradually grew to encompass a settled monastic life centered on life in a community of practitioners. Most of the modern disciplinary rules followed by bhikkhus and bhikkhunis—as encoded in the Patimokkha—relate to such an existence, prescribing in great detail proper methods for living and relating in a community of bhikkhus or bhikkhunis. The number of rules observed varies with the order; Theravada bhikkhus follow around 227 rules. There are a larger number of rules specified for bhikkhunis (nuns).

Buddhist monasticism, with its tradition of councils and missions, spread from India to the Middle East and eventually west. It proved to be a significant force for literacy wherever it spread. Christian monasticism followed in its footsteps in the areas where Emperor Ashoka sent missions.

The Buddhist monastic order consists of the male bhikkhu assembly and the female bhikkhuni assembly. Initially consisting only of males, it grew to include females after the Buddha's stepmother, Mahaprajapati, asked for and received permission to live as an ordained practitioner.

Bhikkhus and bhikkhunis are expected to fulfill a variety of roles in the Buddhist community. First and foremost, they are expected to preserve the doctrine and discipline now known as Buddhism. They are also expected to provide a living example for the laity, and to serve as a "field of merit" for lay followers—providing laymen and women with the opportunity to earn merit by giving gifts and support to the bhikkhuss. In return for the support of the laity, bhikkhus and bhikkhunis are expected to live an austere life focused on the study of Buddhist doctrine, the practice of meditation, and the observance of good moral character.

A bhikkhu (the term in the Pali language) or Bhikshu (in Sanskrit), first ordains as a ''Samanera'' (novice). Novices often ordain at a young age, but generally no younger than eight. Samaneras live according to the Ten Precepts, but are not responsible for living by the full set of monastic rules. Higher ordination, conferring the status of a full Bhikkhu, is given only to men who are aged 20 or older. Bhikkhunis follow a similar progression, but are required to live as Samaneras for longer periods of time- typically five years.

The disciplinary regulations for bhikkhus and bhikkhunis are intended to create a life that is simple and focused, rather than one of deprivation or severe asceticism. However, celibacy is a fundamental part of this form of monastic discipline.

Christian monasticism

Monasticism in Christianity provided the origins of the words "monk" and "monastery" which comprises several diverse forms of religious living that are in response to the call of Jesus of Nazareth to follow him. It began to develop early in the history of the Church, modeled upon Old and New Testament examples and ideals, but not mandated as an institution in the Scriptures. It has come to be regulated by religious rules (e.g. the Rule of St Basil, the Rule of St Benedict) and, in modern times, the Church law of the respective Christian denominations that have forms of monastic living.

The Christian monk embraces the monastic life as a vocation from God. His goal is to attain eternal life in his presence. The rules of monastic life are codified in the "counsels of perfection". In his exposition of the Beatitudes (the right way of living according to the law of God) during his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus exhorted the large crowd listening to him to be "perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (). When speaking to his men, Jesus also extended an invitation to celibacy to those "to whom it has been given" (); and when asked by a wealthy man what else is required in addition to observing the Commandments to "enter into eternal life", he advised to sell all earthly possessions in favour of the poor and to follow him, "if you wish to be perfect" (cf. = = ). Already in the New Testament there is evidence of Christian monastic living, namely the lives of service rendered by the Widows and the Virgins. In the beginning, in Syria and then in Egypt, Christians felt called to a more reclusive or eremitic form of monastic living (in the spirit of the "Desert Theology" of the Old Testament for the purpose of spiritual renewal and return to God). Saint Anthony the Great is cited by Athanasius as one of these early "Hermit monks". Especially in the Middle East, eremitic monasticism continued to be common until the decline of Syrian Christianity in the late Middle Ages.

The need for some form of organized spiritual guidance was obvious; and around 318 Saint Pachomius started to organize his many followers in what was to become the first Christian cenobitic or communal monastery. Soon, similar institutions were established throughout the Egyptian desert as well as the rest of the eastern half of the Roman Empire. Notable monasteries of the East include:

Monastery of Saint Anthony, one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world.

Mar Awgin founded a monastery on Mt. Izla above Nisibis in Mesopotamia (~350), and from this monastery the cenobitic tradition spread in Mesopotamia, Persia, Armenia, Georgia and even India and China.

St. Sabbas the Sanctified organized the monks of the Judean Desert in a monastery close to Bethlehem (483), now known as Mar Saba, which is considered the mother of all monasteries of the Eastern Orthodox churches.

Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai was founded between 527 and 565 in the Sinai desert by order of Emperor Justinian I.

In the West, the most significant development occurred when the rules for monastic communities were written, the Rule of St Basil being credited with having been the first. The precise dating of the Rule of the Master is problematic; but it has been argued on internal grounds that it antedates the so-called Rule of Saint Benedict created by Benedict of Nursia for his monastery in Monte Cassino, Italy (c. 529), and the other Benedictine monasteries he himself had founded (cf. Order of St Benedict). It would become the most common rule throughout the Middle Ages and is still in use today. The Augustinian Rule, due to its brevity, has been adopted by various communities, chiefly the Canons Regular. Around the 12th century, the Franciscan, Carmelite, Dominican, Servite Order(see Servants of Mary) and Augustinian mendicant orders chose to live in city convents among the people instead of being secluded in monasteries.

Today new expressions of Christian monasticism, many of which ecumenical, are developing in places such as the Bose Monastic Community in Italy, the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem throughout Europe, and the Taizé Community in France, and the mainly Evangelical Protestant New Monasticism movement of America.

Hindu monasticism

In their quest to attain the spiritual goal of life, some Hindus choose the path of monasticism (Sannyasa). Monastics commit themselves to a life of simplicity, celibacy, detachment from worldly pursuits, and the contemplation of God. A Hindu monk is called a s''anyāsī, sādhu'', or ''swāmi''. A nun is called a ''sanyāsini'', ''sadhavi'', or ''swāmini''. Such renunciates are accorded high respect in Hindu society, because their outward renunciation of selfishness and worldliness serves as an inspiration to householders who strive for ''mental'' renunciation. Some monastics live in monasteries, while others wander from place to place, trusting in God alone to provide for their physical needs. It is considered a highly meritorious act for a lay devotee to provide sadhus with food or other necessaries. Sādhus are expected to treat all with respect and compassion, whether a person may be poor or rich, good or wicked. They are also expected to be indifferent to praise, blame, pleasure, and pain. A sādhu can typically be recognized by his ochre-colored clothing. Generally, Vaisnava monks shave their heads except for a small patch of hair on the back of the head, while Saivite monks let their hair and beard grow uncut.

A ''Sadhu's'' vow of renunciation typically forbids him from:

owning personal property apart from a bowl, a cup, two sets of clothing and medical aids such as eyeglasses;

having any contact with, looking at, thinking of or even being in the presence of women;

eating for pleasure;

possessing or even touching money or valuables in any way, shape or form;

maintaining personal relationships.

Islam and monasticism

Islam does not allow the practice of monasticism. The stand of Islam is, on the one hand, against sexual license; consequently it prohibits fornication and adultery, and blocks all ways leading to them. On the other hand, Islam is also against suppressing the sexual urge; accordingly, it calls people toward marriage, prohibiting renunciation and castration.

As long a Muslim possess the means to marry, he is not permitted to refrain from marriage on the grounds that he has dedicated himself to the service or the worship of Allah and to a life of monasticism and renunciation of the world.

It has been reported that Abu Qulabah narrated;

"Some of the Companions of the Prophet (peace be on him) decided to relinquish the world, forsake their wives, and become like monks. The Prophet (peace be on him) told them with asperity, People before you perished because of their asceticism; they made excessive demands on themselves until Allah brought hardships on them: you can still see a few of them remaining in monasteries and temples. Then worship Allah and do not associate anything with Him, perform the Hajj and the ‘Umrah, be righteous, and all affairs will be set right for you." (Reported by ‘Abdur Razzaq, Ibn Jarir, and Ibn al-Mundhir)

Abu Qulabah said the following verse was revealed concerning them:

"O you who believe! Do not make haram (forbidden) the good of things which Allah has made halal (Lawful) for you, and do not transgress; indeed, Allah does not like transgressors." (Surah 5: Verse 87)

In another narration we read that one day the son of 'Uthman ibne Maz'un died which so aggrieved him that he declared his house to be a mosque and (abandoning all other work) engaged himself in worship. When the Noble Prophet (S.) came to know of this, he summoned him and said: يَا عُثْمَانَ بْنَ مَظْعُونٍ إِنَّ اللٌّهَ لَمْ يَكْتُبْ عَلَيْنَا الرَّهْـبَانِيَّةَ إِنَّمَا رَهْـبَانِيَّةُ أُمَّتِي الْجِهَادُ فِي سَبِيلِ اللٌّهِ

“O 'Uthman! Surely, Allah, the Blessed and the Exalted has not ordained monasticism for us; monasticism of my ummah is only jihad in the way of Allah.”

In at least one other place The Quran forbids Monasticism explicitly and states it is an invention and Allah did not prescribe it to the Muslims.

"Then We caused Our messengers to follow in their footsteps; and We caused Jesus, son of Mary, to follow, and gave him the Gospel, and placed compassion and mercy in the hearts of those who followed him. But monasticism they invented - We ordained it not for them - only seeking Allah's pleasure, and they observed it not with right observance. So We give those of them who believe their reward, but many of them are evil-doers" ( Surah 57: Verse 27)

The famous expression "لاَ رَهْبَانِيَّةَ فِي الإِسْلاَمِ" “There is no (room for) monasticism in Islam”, is witnessed in numerous Islamic sources.

Judaism and monasticism

Judaism does not encourage the monastic ideal of celibacy and poverty. In fact, the Torah and various corresponding Judaic philosophies encourage the pursuit of permitted physical pleasures as a means to "serve God with joy" (Deut. 28:47).

However, until the Destruction of the second temple, about two thousand years ago, taking Nazirite vows was a common feature of the religion. Nazirite Jews (in Hebrew: נזיר) abstained from grape products, haircuts, and contact with the dead. However, they did not withdraw from general society, and they were permitted to marry and own property; moreover, in most cases a Nazirite vow was for a specified time period and not permanent. In Modern Hebrew, the term "Nazir" is most often used to refer to non-Jewish monastics.

Unique among Jewish communities is the monasticism of the Beta Israel of Ethiopia, a practice believed to date to the 15th century.

A form of asceticism was practiced by some individuals in pre-World War II European Jewish communities. Its principal expression was ''prishut'', the practice of a married Talmud student going into self-imposed exile from his home and family to study in the kollel of a different city or town. This practice was associated with, but not exclusive to, the Perushim.

The Essenes (in Modern but not in Ancient Hebrew: אִסִּיִים, Isiyim; Greek: Εσσηνοι, Εσσαίοι, or Οσσαιοι; Essēnoi, Essaioi, Ossaioi) were a Jewish sect that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE which some scholars claim seceded from the Zadokite priests.[1] Being much fewer in number than the Pharisees and the Sadducees (the other two major sects at the time), the Essenes lived in various cities but congregated in communal life dedicated to asceticism, voluntary poverty, daily immersion, and abstinence from worldly pleasures, including (for some groups) marriage. Many separate but related religious groups of that era shared similar mystic, eschatological, messianic, and ascetic beliefs. These groups are collectively referred to by various scholars as the "Essenes." Josephus records that Essenes existed in large numbers, and thousands lived throughout Roman Judæa.

The Essenes have gained fame in modern times as a result of the discovery of an extensive group of religious documents known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are commonly believed to be their library -- though there is no real proof that they are the writers thereof. These documents include preserved multiple copies of the Hebrew Bible untouched from as early as 300 BCE until their discovery in 1946. Some scholars, however, dispute the notion that the Essenes wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls.[2] Rachel Elior, a prominent Israeli scholar, even questions the existence of the Essenes.

Jain monasticism

Jainism has two branches, each with differing views of monasticism. Digambara monks do not wear clothing, symbolic of their refusal to give in to the body's demands for comfort and private property. But only Digambara ascetics are required to forsake clothing. Digambara ascetics have just two possessions: a peacock feather broom and a water gourd. They also believe that women are unable to obtain moksha. As a result, of the total of approx. 6000 Jain monks, barely 100 are Digambaras. The Shvetambaras are the other main Jainist sect. Svetambaras, unlike Digambaras, neither believe that ascetics must practice nudity, nor do they believe that women are unable to obtain moksha. Shvetambaras are commonly seen wearing face masks so that they do not accidentally breathe in and kill small creatures.

Monasticism in other religions

Ananda Marga has both monks and nuns (i.e. celibate male and female acharyas or missionaries) as well as a smaller group of family acharyas. The monks and nuns are engaged in all kinds of direct services to society, so they have no scope for permanent retreat. They do have to follow strict celibacy, poverty and many other rules of conduct during as well as after they have completed their training.

Bön is believed to have a rich monastic history. Bön monasteries exist today, and the monks there practice Bön-Buddhism.

Manichaeism had two types of followers, the auditors, and the elect. The elect lived apart from the auditors to concentrate on reducing the material influences of the world. They did this through strict celibacy, poverty, teaching, and preaching. Therefore the elect were probably at least partially monastic.

Scientology maintains a "fraternal order" called the Sea Organization or just Sea Org. They work only for the Church of Scientology and have signed billion year contracts. Sea Org members live communally with lodging, food, clothing, and medical care provided by the Church.

Sikhism and the Bahá’í Faith both specifically forbid the practice of monasticism. Hence there are no Sikh or Bahá’í monk conclaves or brotherhoods.

The Transcendental Meditation movement sponsors two monastic groups: the Thousand-Headed Purusha for men and the Mother Divine for women. The US residences for the groups were in Heavenly Mountain, North Carolina. There is also a Purusha program at an ashram in Uttarkashi, India. The Global Mother Divine Organization is described as the women's wing of the Global Country of World Peace.

Zoroastrianism holds that active participation in life through good thoughts, good words and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaotic influences at bay. This ''active'' participation is a central element in Zoroaster's concept of free will, and Zoroastrianism rejects all forms of asceticism and monasticism.

See also

Carmelite Rule of St. Albert

"Into Great Silence"- Documentary of life within the Carthusian monastery of La Grande Chartreuse by Philip Groning.

Matha

Order (religious)

References

Further reading

Fracchia, Charles. ''Living Together Alone: The New American Monasticism''. Harper & Row, 1979. ISBN 0060630116.

Gruber, Mark. 2003. ''Sacrifice In the Desert: A Study of an Egyptian Minority Through the Lens of Coptic Monasticism''. Lanham: University Press of America. ISBN 0-7618-2539-8

Johnston, William M. (ed.). 2000. ''Encyclopedia of Monasticism''. 2 vols., Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers.

Knowles, David. Christian Monasticism. London: World University Library, 1969

Lawrence, C. H. 2001. ''Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages'' (3rd Edition). New York: Longmans. ISBN 0-582-40427-4

Zarnecki, George. 1985. "The Monastic World: The Contributions of the Orders". Pp. 36–66, in Evans, Joan (ed.). 1985. ''The Flowering of the Middle Ages.'' London: Thames and Hudson Ltd.

External links

The Hermits by Charles Kingsley (Gutenberg)

Links to Coptic Orthodox Monasteries of Egypt and the world

Historyfish.net: texts and articles regarding the Western Christian monastic tradition.

Abbot Gasquet's English Monastic Life. Full Text + Illustrations.

Public Domain Photochrom photographs, Abbeys, Cathedrals, Holy Sites and the Holy Land.

History of Monasticism

Monasticism Immaculate Heart of Mary's Hermitage

"Woman" – The correct perspective for the monastic – An eastern point of view

Korean Franciscan Brotherhood

Orthodox Monasticism Saint Anthony's Greek Orthodox Monaster

Category:Religious behaviour and experience

bg:Монашество cs:Mnišství de:Monastisch dsb:Mnichojstwo et:Munklus el:Μοναχισμός id:Monastisisme it:Monachesimo he:נזיר pl:Monastycyzm pt:Monasticismo ru:Монашество sr:Монаштво sh:Monaštvo th:ชีวิตอารามวาสี uk:Чернецтво yi:מאנאך zh:修行制度

Coordinates	16°44′0″N96°15′0″N
name	Beastie Boys
landscape	yes
background	group_or_band
origin	New York City, United States
genre	Hip hop, rap rock, hardcore punk
occupation	Rappers
years active	1979–present
label	Rat CageDef JamCapitolGrand Royal
associated acts	Run DMCBiz MarkieB.G.
website	beastieboys.com
current members	Mike DMCAAd-Rock
past members	Kate SchellenbachJohn BerryDJ Double RDoctor DréDJ Hurricane }}

Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D (Michael Diamond) who plays the drums, MCA (Adam Yauch) who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock (Adam Horovitz) who plays the guitar.

The Beastie Boys began as hardcore punk band in 1979, first appearing on the compilation cassette ''New York Thrash'' before releasing their first EP, ''Polly Wog Stew'', in 1982. After achieving moderate local success with the 1983 release of their experimental hip hop 12" ''Cooky Puss'', they made the transition to hip hop in 1984 and a string of successful 12" singles followed by their debut album ''Licensed to Ill'' in 1986 which received international critical acclaim and commercial success. As of 2010, they have sold 22 million albums in the United States and 40 million albums worldwide.

They are one of the longest lived hip hop acts worldwide and continue to enjoy commercial and critical success in 2011, nearly 25 years after the release of their debut album. On September 27, 2007, they were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2009, the group released digitally remastered deluxe editions of their albums ''Paul's Boutique'', ''Check Your Head'', ''Ill Communication'' and ''Hello Nasty''. Their eighth studio album, ''Hot Sauce Committee Part Two'', was released on May 3, 2011, and received positive reviews.

History

''Early years'' (1979–1983)

The Beastie Boys came together in 1979 as a hardcore punk band. A teenaged Adam Yauch had the idea to start an NY-Hard Core band after seeing Black Flag play their first NY show at Peppermint Lounge on March 14, 1981, and approached friends John Berry, Kate Schellenbach, and Michael Diamond (who were all in another band called The Young Aborigines), asking them to join him. The name "Beastie Boys" was suggested by original guitarist John Berry. The letters B.E.A.S.T.I.E. stand for "Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Internal Excellence", but this was a backronym, as it was decided what the letters stood for after the band's name had been chosen. The band's original line-up consisted of Adam Yauch on bass, Kate Schellenbach on drums, John Berry on guitar, and Michael Diamond on vocals. Their first gig was at Berry's loft at 100th Street and Broadway on Yauch's 17th birthday, August 5, 1981.

The band quickly earned support slots for Bad Brains, the Dead Kennedys, the Misfits and Reagan Youth at venues such as CBGB, A7, Trudy Hellers Place and Max's Kansas City, playing at the latter venue on its closing night. In November of that same year, the Beastie Boys recorded the 7" EP ''Polly Wog Stew'' at 171A studios, an early recorded example of New York hardcore.

On Friday, November 13, 1982, the Beastie Boys, consisting of band members John Berry, Michael Diamond (Mike D), Adam Yauch (MCA) (a.k.a. Nathanial Hörnblowér), and Kate Schellenbach (later of Luscious Jackson), played Philip Pucci's birthday for the purposes of his short concert film of the Beastie Boys, Philip Pucci's "Beastie". Pucci held the concert in Bard College's Preston Drama Dance Department Theatre. This performance marked the Beastie Boys’ first on screen appearance in a published motion picture. Pucci's concept for “Beastie” was to distribute a mixture of both a half dozen 16mm Bell and Howell Filmo cameras, and 16mm Bolex cameras to audience members and ask that they capture the Beastie Boys performance from the audience’s own point of view while a master sync sound camera filmed from the balcony of the abandoned theater where the performance was held. The opening band for that performance was “The Young and the Useless”, which featured Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) as their lead singer. A one minute clip of "Beastie" was subsequently excerpted and licensed by the Beastie Boys for use in the "Egg Raid on Mojo" segment of the "Skills to Pay the Bills" long form home video released by Capitol Records. “Skills to Pay the Bills” later went on to earn the Recording Industry Association of America’s (R.I.A.A.) gold sales award for selling more than 500,000 copies.

John Berry left the group in 1983 (later forming Thwig, Big Fat Love, and Bourbon Deluxe) and was replaced by Adam Horovitz guitarist of The Young and the Useless (who had become close friends with the Beastie Boys at this point). The band also recorded and then performed its first hip hop track, "Cooky Puss", based on a prank call by the group to Carvel Ice Cream in 1983. It became a hit in New York underground dance clubs and night clubs upon its release.

''Licensed to Ill'' (1984–1987)

With the success of "Cooky Puss" they began to incorporate rap into their set. They decided to hire a DJ for their live shows, and ended up getting an NYU student named Rick Rubin. Soon thereafter, Rubin began producing records, formed Def Jam Recordings and approached the band about producing them for his new label. Around the same time, the band made a more complete switch over from a punk rock outfit to a three-man rap trio, each adopting their own hip hop monikers in the vein of Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel and Fab Five Freddy (Mike D, MCA and Adrock). They released the 12" EP, ''Rock Hard'', in 1985; this would be the second record released by Def Jam crediting Rubin as producer. Kate Schellenbach developed creative differences with the band soon after Rubin's arrival; friction with Rubin was a contributing factor. It is believed that Rubin objected to Schellenbach's place in the band – she did not fit the hip hop image that Rick envisioned. Schellenbach went on to join Luscious Jackson in 1991.

In 1985, the band opened for John Lydon's post-Sex Pistols band Public Image Ltd., as well as supporting Madonna on her North American The Virgin Tour. Later in the year, the group was on the ''Raising Hell'' tour with Run DMC, Whodini, LL Cool J, and the Timex Social Club. With their exposure on this tour, the track "Hold It Now, Hit It" made ''Billboard'''s national R&B; and Dance charts. The track "She's on It" from the ''Krush Groove'' soundtrack continued in a rap/metal vein while a double A-side 12", "Paul Revere/The New Style", was released at the end of the year.

The band recorded ''Licensed to Ill'' in 1986 and released the album at the end of the year. The album was well-received, and was favorably reviewed by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine with the now-famous headline, "Three Idiots Create a Masterpiece." ''Licensed to Ill'' became the best selling rap album of the 1980s and the first rap album to go No.1 on the ''Billboard'' album chart, where it stayed for five weeks. It also reached No.2 on the Urban album charts. It was Def Jam's fastest selling debut record to date and sold over five million copies. The first single from the album, "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)", () reached No.7 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and the video (directed by Ric Menello) became an MTV staple. Another chart hit from the album was No Sleep till Brooklyn, released in 1987.

The band took the ''Licensed to Ill'' tour around the world the following year. It was a tour clouded in controversy featuring female members of the crowd dancing in cages and a giant motorized inflatable penis similar to one used by The Rolling Stones in the 1970s. The tour was troubled by lawsuits and arrests, with the band accused of provoking the crowd. This culminated in their notorious gig at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, England on May 30, 1987 that erupted into a riot approximately 10 minutes after the Beasties hit the stage and the arrest of Adam Horovitz by Merseyside Police on assault charges.

After the success of ''Licensed to Ill'', the Beasties parted ways with Def Jam and ended their relationship with Rick Rubin to sign with Capitol Records. ''Tougher Than Leather'', the movie made by Rick Rubin as a star vehicle for Run-D.M.C. and Def Jam Recordings with appearances by the Beastie Boys when they were still with the label, was subsequently released in 1988. In 1998, a bootleg album entitled ''Original Ill'' was released, featuring original [[Demo (music)| demos]] of all the tracks from the final version of ''Licensed to Ill'', plus deleted tracks "I'm Down" (a Beatles cover) and "The Scenario" (an early example of gangsta rap which was memorably featured in the 1990 Christian Slater film ''Pump Up the Volume'').

''Paul's Boutique'' and ''Check Your Head'' (1988–1992)

The group re-entered the studio in 1988, emerging with a more artistically mature second album, ''Paul's Boutique''. Produced by the Dust Brothers and Matt Dike, this extremely sample-heavy opus is still considered one of the strongest works by the Beastie Boys, and ''Rolling Stone'' ranked it No.156 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It is also considered a landmark in hip hop recordings due to its large array of samples and intricate use of multi-layering. The album was released in 1989 by Capitol Records, after the falling out between the group and Def Jam. It failed to match the sales of ''Licensed to Ill,'' reaching No.14 on the Billboard 200 and No.10 on the Billboard R&B; charts. The lead single, "Hey Ladies", reached No.36 on the Billboard 100 and No.10 on the R&B; charts. ''Rolling Stone'' would describe the album as "the ''Pet Sounds''/''The Dark Side of the Moon'' of hip hop." ''Paul's Boutique'' would eventually sell a million copies, despite the initially weak commercial reception. The band digitally remastered and released the album through their own website.

The follow-up album, ''Check Your Head'', was recorded in the band's own "G-Son" studio in Atwater Village, California and released on its Grand Royal record label. The band was influenced to play instruments on this album by Dutch group Urban Dance Squad; with Mike D on drums, Yauch on bass, Horovitz on guitar and Mark Ramos Nishita ("Keyboard Money Mark") on keyboards. Mario Caldato, Jr., who had helped in the production of ''Paul's Boutique'', engineered the record and became a longtime collaborator. ''Check Your Head'' was released in 1992 and went double platinum in the U.S., reaching a peak of No.10 on the Billboard 200. The single "So What'cha Want" reached No.93 on the Billboard 100 and made both the urban and modern rock charts while the album's first single "Pass the Mic" became a hit in dance clubs. The album also introduced a more experimental direction, with funk and jazz inspired songs including "Lighten Up" and "Something's Got to Give". The band returned to their hardcore punk roots for the song "Time for Livin'", a Sly & the Family Stone cover.

Beastie Boys signed an eclectic roster of artists to their Grand Royal label, including Luscious Jackson, Sean Lennon and promising Australian artist Ben Lee. The group owned Grand Royal Records until 2001 when it was then sold for financial reasons. Grand Royal's first independent release was Luscious Jackson's album ''In Search of Manny'' in 1993. Also, in 1993, the band contributed the track "It's The New Style" (with DJ Hurricane) to the AIDS-Benefit Album No Alternative produced by the Red Hot Organization.

The Beastie Boys also published ''Grand Royal Magazine'', with the first edition in 1993 featuring a cover story on Bruce Lee, artwork by George Clinton, and interviews with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and A Tribe Called Quest MC Q-Tip. The 1995 issue of the magazine contained a memorable piece on the mullet. The Oxford English Dictionary cites this as the first published use of the term, along with the lyrics from the Beasties' 1994 song "Mullet Head". That is why one never heard the term in the 1980s, even though that decade has retroactively been hailed as the mullet's peak in popularity. The OED says that the term was "apparently coined, and certainly popularized, by U.S. hip-hop group the Beastie Boys." ''Grand Royal Magazine'' is also responsible for giving British band Sneaker Pimps their name.

''Ill Communication'' (1993–1996)

''Ill Communication'', released in 1994, saw the Beastie Boys' return to the top of the charts when the album debuted at No.1 on the Billboard Top 200 & peaked at No.2 on the R&B;/hip hop album chart. The single "Sabotage" () became a hit on the modern rock charts and the music video, directed by Spike Jonze, received extensive play on MTV. "Get It Together" reached Top 10 of the Billboard dance charts and also became an urban hit while "Sure Shot" was a dance hit. ''Some Old Bullshit'', featuring the band's early independent material, made No.50 on the Billboard independent charts.

Beastie Boys headlined at Lollapalooza—an American travelling music festival—in 1994, together with The Smashing Pumpkins. In addition, the band performed three concerts (in Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington D.C.) to raise money for the Milarepa Fund and dedicated the royalties from "Shambala" and "Bodhisattva Vow" from the ''Ill Communication'' album to the cause. The Milarepa Fund aims to raise awareness of Tibetan human rights issues and the exile of the Dalai Lama. In 1996, Yauch organized the Tibetan Freedom Concert, a two-day festival at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco that attracted 100,000 people.

In 1995, the popularity of Beastie Boys was underlined when tickets for an arena tour went on sale in the U.S. and sold out within a few minutes. One dollar from each ticket sold went to local charities. The Beastie Boys toured South America and Southeast Asia for the first time. The band also released ''Aglio e Olio'', a collection of eight songs lasting just 11 minutes harking back to their punk roots, in 1995. ''The In Sound From Way Out!'', a collection of previously released jazz/funk instrumentals, was released on Grand Royal in 1996 with the title and artwork a homage to an album by electronic pop music pioneers Perrey and Kingsley.

''Hello Nasty'' (1997–2001)

Beastie Boys returned to New York City in 1997 to produce and record the album ''Hello Nasty''. The album displayed a substantial shift in musical feel, with the addition of Mix Master Mike, who added to the Beasties' sound with his kinetic DJ style. Released July 14, 1998, ''Hello Nasty'' earned first week sales of 698,527 in the U.S. and went straight to No.1 in the U.S., the UK, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Sweden. The album achieved No.2 rank in the charts in Canada and Japan, and reached Top Ten chart positions in Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, Belgium, Finland, France and Israel.

Beastie Boys won two Grammy Awards in 1999, receiving the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album for ''Hello Nasty'' as well as the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for "Intergalactic". This was the first and, as of 2008, only time that a band had won awards in both rap and alternative categories.

Also at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards they won the highly coveted Video Vanguard Award for their contribution to music videos. The following year at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards they also won the award for Best Hip Hop Video for their hit song "Intergalactic". Beastie Boys used both appearances at the Video Music Awards to make politically-charged speeches of considerable length to the sizable MTV audiences. At the 1998 ceremony, Yauch addressed the issue of Muslim people being stereotyped as terrorists and that most people of the Muslim faith are not terrorists. These comments were made in the wake of the U.S. Embassy bombings that had occurred in both Kenya and Tanzania only a month earlier. At the 1999 ceremony in the wake of the horror stories that were coming out of Woodstock 99, Adam Horovitz addressed the fact that there had been so many cases of sexual assaults and rapes at the festival and the need for bands and festivals to pay much more attention to the security details at their concerts.

Beastie Boys started an arena tour in 1998. Through Ian C. Rogers, the band made live downloads of their performances available for their fans, but were temporarily thwarted when Capitol Records removed them from its website. The Beastie Boys was one of the first bands who made mp3 downloads available on their website; they got a high level of response and public awareness as a result including a published article in ''The Wall Street Journal'' on the band's efforts.

The 1999 Tibetan Freedom Concerts featured shows in East Troy, Wisconsin, Sydney, Tokyo, and Amsterdam. On September 28, 1999, Beastie Boys joined Elvis Costello to play "Radio Radio" on the 25th anniversary season of ''Saturday Night Live''.

Beastie Boys released ''The Sounds of Science'', a two-CD anthology of their works in 1999. This album reached No.19 on the Billboard 200, No.18 in Canada, No.6 on the Internet sales charts, and No.14 on the R&B;/Hip Hop charts. The one new song, the single "Alive", reached No.11 on the Billboard's Modern Rock chart.

In the years following the release of ''Hello Nasty'' the group launched their official website which underwent several transformations eventually culminating in one of the most popular recording artist related websites on the internet.

In 2000, Beastie Boys had planned to co-headline the "Rhyme and Reason Tour" with Rage Against the Machine and Busta Rhymes, but the tour was canceled when drummer Mike D suffered a serious injury due to a bicycle accident. The official diagnosis was fifth-degree acromioclavicular joint dislocation; he needed surgery and extensive rehabilitation. By the time he recovered, Rage Against the Machine had disbanded, although they would reunite seven years later.

Under the name "Country Mike", Mike D recorded an album, ''Country Mike's Greatest Hits'', and gave it to friends and family for Christmas in 2000. Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz's side project BS 2000 released ''Simply Mortified'' in 2001.

''Hello Nasty'' was reissued on September 22, 2009.

''To the 5 Boroughs'' (2002–2006)

The band increased its level of political activism after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, organizing and headlining the New Yorkers Against Violence Concert in October 2001. Funds from the concert went towards the New York Women's Foundation Disaster Relief Fund and the New York Association for New Americans (NYANA).

In 2002, Adam Yauch started building a new studio facility, ''Oscilloscope Laboratories'', in downtown Manhattan, New York and the band started work on a new album there. The band released a protest song, "In A World Gone Mad", against the 2003 Iraq war as a free download on several websites, including the Milarepa website, the MTV website, MoveOn.org, and Win Without War. It became the most downloaded track during April 2003. The 19th and 20th Tibetan Freedom Concerts were held in Tokyo and Taipei, Beastie Boys' first Taiwan appearance. Beastie Boys also headlined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Their single, "Ch-Check It Out", debuted on ''The O.C.'' in "The Vegas" episode from Season 1 which aired April 28, 2004.

''To the 5 Boroughs'' was released worldwide on June 15, 2004. It was the first album the Beastie Boys produced themselves and reached No.1 on the Billboard album charts, No.2 in the UK and Australia, and No.3 in Germany. The first single from the album, "Ch-Check It Out", reached No.1 in Canada and the US Modern Rock Tracks, No.2 on the world internet download charts, and No.3 on a composite world modern rock chart.

The album was the cause of some controversy with allegations that it installed spyware when inserted into the CD drive of a computer. The band has denied this allegation, defending that there is no copy protection software on the albums sold in the U.S. and UK. While there is Macrovision CDS-200 copy protection software installed on European copies of the album, this is standard practice for all European releases on EMI/Capitol Records released in Europe, and it does not install spyware or any form of permanent software.

The band stated in mid-2006 that they were writing material for their next album and would be producing it themselves.

''The Mix-Up'' (2007–2008)

Speaking to British music weekly ''NME'' (April 26, 2007), Diamond revealed that a new album was to be called ''The Mix-Up''. Despite initial confusion regarding whether the album would have lyrics as opposed to being purely instrumental, the Mic-To-Mic blog reported that Capitol Records had confirmed it would be strictly instrumental and erroneously reported a release date scheduled for July 10, 2007. (The album was eventually released June 26, as originally reported.) On May 1, 2007, this was further cemented by an e-mail sent to those on the Beastie Boys' mailing list — explicitly stating that the album would be all instrumental:

The band subsequently confirmed this in public, playing several tracks from the album at the 2007 Virgin Festival at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland.

To support the release, a string of live dates was announced that focused on festivals as opposed to a traditional tour, including the likes of Sónar (Spain), Roskilde (Denmark), Hurricane/Southside (Germany), Bestival (Isle Of Wight), Electric Picnic (Ireland) and Open'er Festival (Poland). Beastie Boys performed at the UK leg of Live Earth July 7, 2007 at Wembley Stadium, London with "Sabotage", "So What'cha Want", "Intergalactic", and "Sure Shot".

They worked with Reverb, a non-profit environmental organization, on their 2007 summer tour.

Beastie Boys were featured on the cover of Beyond Race magazine for the publication's summer 2007 issue.

They won a Grammy for ''The Mix-Up'' in the "Best Pop Instrumental Album" category at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in 2008.

''Hot Sauce Committee'' (2009–present)

In February 2009, Yauch revealed their forthcoming new album has taken the band's sound in a "bizarre" new direction, saying "It's a combination of playing and sampling stuff as we're playing, and also sampling pretty obscure records." The tentative title for the record was ''Tadlock's Glasses'', of which Yauch explained the inspiration behind the title:

"We had a bus driver years ago who used to drive Elvis' back up singers. His name was Tadlock and Elvis gave him a pair of glasses which he was very proud of. So for some reason that title – ''Tadlock's Glasses'' – has just been bouncing around."

In June 2009 The Beastie Boys appeared at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival and performed the new single from the album titled "Too Many Rappers" alongside rapper Nas who appears on the track. The group would have toured the UK later in the year in support of the new record.

On May 25, it was announced during an interview on ''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' that the name of their new album would be ''Hot Sauce Committee'' and was set for release on September 15 (with the tracklisting of the album announced through their mailing list on June 23).

Speaking to Drowned in Sound the Beastie Boys revealed that Part 2 is done. Mike D also hinted it may be released via unusual means:

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On July 20, Yauch announced on the Beastie Boys' official YouTube channel and through the fan mailing list the cancellation of several tour dates and the postponement of the new album due to the discovery of a cancerous tumor in his parotid gland and a lymph node. The group also had to cancel their co-headlining gig at the Osheaga Festival in Montreal as well as a headlining spot at 2009's Lollapalooza.

In late October 2010, the Beastie Boys sent out two emails regarding the status of Hot Sauce Committee Pts. 1 and 2 to their online mailing list. An email dated October 18 read: "Although we regret to inform you that Hot Sauce Committee Part 1 will continue to be delayed indefinitely, Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 will be released on time as originally planned in spring of 2011." One week later, a second email was sent out, reading as follows:

The official release dates were April 27, 2011 for Japan; April 29 in the UK and Europe, and May 3, 2011 in the US. The third single for the album is "Make Some Noise" was made available for download on April 11, 2011 as well as a limited edition 7" vinyl single for Record Store Day five days later with a Passion Pit remix of the track as a b-side. The track was leaked online on April 6 and subsequently made available via their blog.

On April 22, the Beastie Boys emailed out the cryptic message ''"This Sat, 10:35 am EST – Just listen, listen, listen to the beat box"''. A day later, they live streamed their album online via beatbox inside Madison Square Garden.

Influences and legacy

Beastie Boys have had four albums reach the top of the ''Billboard'' album charts (''Licensed to Ill'', ''Ill Communication'', ''Hello Nasty'' and ''To The 5 Boroughs'') since 1986. In the November 2004 issue, ''Rolling Stone'' named "Sabotage" the 475th song on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. In their April 2005 issue, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked them No.77 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. VH1 ranked them No.89 on their list of their 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. On September 27, 2007, it was announced that Beastie Boys were one of the nine nominees for the 2008 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductions. A controversial concert in Columbus, Georgia in 1987 led to the passage of a lewdness ordinance in that city. Sal Governale, a comedian on the staff of ''The Howard Stern Show'', indicated on air on July 25, 2007, that he was the president of the Beastie Boys fan club in the 1980s on the Prodigy computer network.

The Beastie Boys were highly influenced by the incendiary blend of the politics, art, and rock n roll of the extremely influential punk rock band The Clash. Further influences include early rock bands Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, and Acid Rock legend Jimi Hendrix. Canadian rock band The Barenaked Ladies have also cited the Beastie Boys as a huge inspiration for their work.

Sampling lawsuit

In 2003, Beastie Boys were involved in the landmark sampling decision, ''Newton v. Diamond''. In that case, a federal judge ruled that the band was not liable for sampling James Newton's "Choir" in their track, "Pass the Mic". The sample used is the six-second flute stab. In short, the Beasties cleared the sample but obtained only the rights to use the sound recording and not the composition rights to the song "Choir". In the decision, the judge found that "when viewed in relation to Newton's composition as a whole, the portion is neither quantitatively nor qualitatively significant... Because Beastie Boys' use of the sound recording was authorized, the sole basis of Newton's infringement action is his remaining copyright interest in the 'Choir' composition. We hold today that Beastie Boys' use of a brief segment of that composition, consisting of three notes separated by a half-step over a background C note, is not sufficient to sustain a claim for copyright infringement."

Band members

Beastie Boys

Mike D (Michael Diamond) – vocals, drums (1979–present)

MCA (Adam Yauch) – vocals, bass (1979–present)

Ad-Rock (Adam Horovitz) – vocals, guitars (1982–present)

Former members

Kate Schellenbach – drums, percussion (1979–1983)

John Berry – guitars (1979–1981)

DJ Double R (Rick Rubin) – disc jockey (1984–1985)

Doctor Dré (André Brown) – disc jockey (1986)

DJ Hurricane (Wendell Fite) – disc jockey (1986–1997)

Other contributing members

Rick Rubin – producer (1985–1986)

The Dust Brothers – producer (1988)

Mario Caldato, Jr. – producer, engineer (1988–1998)

Money Mark (Mark Ramos-Nishita) – keyboards, vocals (1992–present)

Eric Bobo – percussion (1992–1998)

AWOL (Amery Smith) – drums (1994–1995)

Mix Master Mike (Michael Schwartz) – disc jockey, turntables (1998–present)

Discography

Studio albums

''Licensed to Ill'' (1986)

''Paul's Boutique'' (1989)

''Check Your Head'' (1992)

''Ill Communication'' (1994)

''Hello Nasty'' (1998)

''To the 5 Boroughs'' (2004)

''The Mix-Up'' (2007)

''Hot Sauce Committee Part Two'' (2011)

Awards and Nominations

Grammy Awards

!Year	!Nominated work	!Award	!Result
align=center	''Check Your Head''	Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group
align=center	"Sabotage"	Best Hard Rock Performance
align=center	"Intergalactic"	Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group
align=center	''Hello Nasty''	Best Alternative Performance
align=center	"Alive"	Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group
align=center	"Ch-Check It Out"	Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group
align=center	''To The 5 Boroughs''	Best Rap Album
align=center	"Off the Grid"	Best Pop Instrumental Performance
align=center	''The Mix-Up''	Best Pop Instrumental Album
align=center	"Too Many Rappers" (featuring Nas)	Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group

Filmography

''Krush Groove'' (1985)

''Tougher Than Leather'' (1988)

''Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That!'' (2006)

''Fight For Your Right Revisited'' (2011)

References

Beastie (1982)

External links

Official website

Beastie Museum

Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Def Jam Recordings artists Category:East Coast hip hop groups Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Jewish hip hop groups Category:Musical groups established in 1979 Category:Hardcore punk groups from New York Category:Rapcore groups Category:Reachout International Records recording artists Category:Sony/ATV Music Publishing artists

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Coordinates	16°44′0″N96°15′0″N
Region	Continental Philosophy
Era	Contemporary philosophy
Color	#B0C4DE
Name	Giorgio Agamben
Birth date	April 22, 1942
Birth place	Rome
School tradition	Aesthetics
Main interests	Aesthetics Political philosophy
Notable ideas	''Homo sacer''"State of exception""Whatever singularity"
Influences	Aristotle Foucault Benjamin Derrida Heidegger Arendt Bruno Nietzsche Warburg Schmitt
Influenced	}}

Giorgio Agamben (born 22 April 1942) is an Italian political philosopher best known for his work investigating the concepts of the state of exception and ''homo sacer''.

Agamben teaches at the Università IUAV di Venezia, the Collège International de Philosophie in Paris, and the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland; he previously taught at the University of Macerata and at the University of Verona, both in Italy. He also has held visiting appointments at several American universities, from the University of California, Berkeley, to Northwestern University, Evanston, and at Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf.

Agamben received the Prix Européen de l'Essai Charles Veillon in 2006.

Biography

Agamben was educated at the University of Rome, where he wrote an unpublished thesis on the political thought of Simone Weil. Agamben participated in Martin Heidegger's Le Thor seminars (on Heraclitus and Hegel) in 1966 and 1968. In the 1970s, he worked primarily on linguistics, philology, poetics, and topics in medieval culture. During this period, Agamben began to elaborate his primary concerns, although their political bearings were not yet made explicit. In 1974–1975 he was a fellow at the Warburg Institute, University of London, due to the courtesy of Frances Yates, whom he met through Italo Calvino. During this fellowship, Agamben began to develop his second book, ''Stanzas'' (1977).

Agamben was close to the poets Giorgio Caproni and José Bergamín, and to the Italian novelist Elsa Morante, to whom he devoted the essays "The Celebration of the Hidden Treasure" (in ''The End of the Poem'') and "Parody" (in ''Profanations''). He has been a friend and collaborator to such eminent intellectuals as Pier Paolo Pasolini (in whose ''The Gospel According to St. Matthew'' he played the part of Philip), Italo Calvino (with whom he collaborated, for a short while, as counsellor of the publishing house Einaudi and developed plans for a journal), Ingeborg Bachmann, Pierre Klossowski, Guy Debord, Jean-Luc Nancy, Jacques Derrida, Antonio Negri, Jean-François Lyotard and others.

His strongest influences include Martin Heidegger and Walter Benjamin. Agamben edited Benjamin's collected works in Italian translation until 1996, and viewed Benjamin's thought as "the antidote that allowed me to survive Heidegger." In 1981, Agamben discovered several important lost manuscripts by Benjamin in the archives of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Benjamin had left these manuscripts to Georges Bataille when he fled Paris shortly before his death. The most relevant of these to Agamben's own later work were Benjamin's manuscripts for his theses ''On the Concept of History''. Agamben has engaged since the nineties in a debate with the political writings of the German jurist Carl Schmitt, most extensively in Agamben's study ''State of Exception'' (2003). His recent writings also elaborate on the concepts of Michel Foucault, whom he calls "a scholar from whom I have learned a great deal in recent years".

Agamben's political thought was originally founded on his readings of Aristotle's ''Politics'', ''Nicomachean Ethics'', and treatise ''On the Soul'', as well as the exegetical traditions concerning these texts in late antiquity and the Middle Ages. In his later work, Agamben intervenes in the theoretical debates following the publication of Nancy's essay ''La communauté désoeuvrée'' (1983), and Maurice Blanchot's response, ''La communauté inavouable'' (1983). These texts analyzed the notion of community at a time when the European Community was under debate. Agamben proposed his own model of a community which would not presuppose categories of identity in ''The Coming Community'' (1990). At this time, Agamben also analyzed the ontological condition and "political" attitude of Bartleby (from Herman Melville's short story) – a ''scrivener'' who does not react, and "prefers not" to write.

In the ''Homo Sacer'' series, Agamben responds to Hannah Arendt's and Foucault's studies of totalitarianism and biopolitics. Since 1995 he has been best known for this ongoing project, the volumes of which have been published out of order, and which currently includes :

''Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life'' (1995),

''State of Exception. Homo Sacer II, 1'' (2003),

''The Kingdom and the Glory: For a Theological Genealogy of Economy and Government. Homo Sacer II, 2'' (2007),

''The Sacrament of Language: An Archaeology of the Oath. Homo Sacer II, 3'' (2008),

''Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive. Homo Sacer III'' (1998).

In the projected final volume of the series, Agamben intends to address "the concepts of forms-of-life and lifestyles." "What I call a form-of-life," he explains, "is a life which can never be separated from its form, a life in which it is never possible to separate something like bare life. [...] [H]ere too the concept of privacy comes in to play."

Work

In ''The Coming Community'' (1993), Giorgio Agamben writes:

This reduction of life to 'biopolitics' is one of the main threads in Agamben's work, in his critical conception of an ''homo sacer'', reduced to 'bare life', and thus deprived of any rights. Agamben's concept rests on a crucial distinction in Greek between 'bare life' (''la vita nuda'', Gk.ζωή: ''zoê'') and 'a particular mode of life' or 'qualified life.' In Part III, section 7 of ''Homo Sacer'', “The Camp as the 'Nomos' of the Modern”, he evokes the concentration camps of World War II. “The camp is the space that is opened when the state of exception begins to become the rule.” Agamben says that "What happened in the camps so exceeds (is outside of) the juridical concept of crime that the specific juridico-political structure in which those events took place is often simply omitted from consideration." The conditions in the camps were "conditio inhumana," and the incarcerated somehow defined outside the boundaries of humanity, under the exception laws of Schutzhaft. Where law is based on vague, unspecific concepts such as "race" or "good morals," law and the personal subjectivity of the judicial agent are no longer distinct.

“In United States criminal law, people accused of committing crimes cannot be compelled to incriminate themselves verbally, but can be compelled to incriminate themselves physically.” In the process of creating a state of exception these effects can compound. In a realized state of exception, one who has been accused of committing a crime, within the legal system, loses the ability to use his voice and represent themselves- the individual has can not only be deprived of their citizenship, but also of any form of agency over their own life. “Agamben identifies the state of exception with the power of decision over life.” Within the state of exception, the distinction between ''bios''(citizen) and ''zoe''(homo sacer) is made by those with judicial power. For example, Agamben would argue that Guantánamo Bay exemplifies the concept of 'the state of exception' in the United States following 9–11.

Agamben mentions that basic universal human rights of Taliban individuals while captured in Afghanistan and sent to Guantanamo Bay in 2001 were negated by US laws. In reaction to the removal of their basic human rights, detainees of Guantánamo Bay prison went on hunger strikes. Within a state of exception, when a detainee is placed outside of the law, he is according to Agamben, reduced to 'bare life' in the eyes of the judicial powers. Here, one can see why such measures as hunger strikes can occur in such places as prisons. Within the framework of a system that has deprived the individual of power, and their individual basic human freedoms, the hunger strike can be seen as a weapon or form of resistance. “The body is a model which can stand for any bounded system. Its boundaries can represent any boundaries which are threatened or precarious.” Within a state of exception the boundaries of power are precarious and threaten to destabilize not only the law, but one’s humanity, as well as their choice of life or death. Forms of resistance to the extended use of power within the state of exception as suggested in Guantánamo Bay prison also operate outside of the law. In the case of the hunger strike, the prisoners were threatened and endured force feeding not allowing them to die. During the hunger strikes at Guantánamo Bay prison, accusations and founded claims of forced feedings began to surface in the autumn of 2005. In February 2006, ''The New York Times'' reported that prisoners were being force fed in Guantánamo Bay prison and in March 2006, more than 250 medical experts, as reported by the BBC , voiced their opinions of the forced feedings stating that this was a breach of the government’s power and was against the rights of the prisoners.

''The Coming Community'' (1993)

In ''The Coming Community'', published in Italian in 1990 and English translation by Michael Hardt in 1993, Agamben describes the social and political manifestation of his philosophical thought. The beauty and brevity of the text is augmented by the book layout, filled with design, white space and random dots. Employing diverse short essays he describes the nature of “whatever singularity” as that which has an “inessential commonality, a solidarity that in no way concerns an essence”. It is important to note his understanding of “whatever” not as being indifference but based on the Latin translation of “being such that it always matters”

He starts off by describing ''“The Lovable”''

Following the same trend, Agamben employs, amongst others, the following to describe the “watershed of whatever”:

Example – Particular and Universal

Limbo – Blessed and Damned

Homonym – concept and idea

Halo – Potentiality and Actuality

Face – common and proper, genus and individual

Threshold – inside and outside

Coming Community – State & Non-state (humanity)

Other themes addressed in ''The Coming Community'' include the commodification of the body, evil, and the messianic.

Unlike other continental philosophers he does not reject the age-old dichotomies of subject – object, potentiality – actuality etc. outright, but rather turns them inside-out, pointing out the zone where they become indistinguishable.

The political task of humanity, he argues, is to expose the innate potential in this zone of indistinguishability. And although criticised as dreaming the impossible by certain authors , he nonetheless shows a concrete example of ''whatever singularity'' acting politically:

''Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life'' (1998)

In his main work ''"Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life"'' (1998), Giorgio Agamben analyzes an obscure figure of Roman law that poses some fundamental questions to the nature of law and power in general. Under the Roman Empire, a man who committed a certain kind of crime was banned from society and all of his rights as a citizen were revoked. He thus became a ''"homo sacer"'' (sacred man). In consequence, he could be killed by anybody—while his life on the other hand was deemed "sacred", so he could not be sacrificed in a ritual ceremony.

Roman law no longer applied to someone deemed a ''Homo sacer'', although they would remain "under the spell" of law. Agamben defines it as "human life...included in the juridical order solely in the form of its exclusion (that is, of its capacity to be killed)". ''Homo sacer'' was therefore ''excluded'' from law itself, while being ''included'' at the same time. This figure is the exact mirror image of the sovereign (''Basileus'') – a king, emperor, or president – who stands, on the one hand, ''within'' law (so he can be condemned, e.g., for treason, as a natural person) and ''outside of'' the law (since as a body politic he has power to suspend law for an indefinite time).

Giorgio Agamben draws on Carl Schmitt's definition of the Sovereign as the one who has the power to decide the state of exception (or ''justitium''), where law is indefinitely "suspended" without being abrogated. But if Schmitt's aim is to include the necessity of state of emergency under the rule of law, Agamben on the contrary demonstrates that all life cannot be subsumed by law. As in ''Homo sacer'', the state of emergency is the inclusion of life and necessity in the juridical order solely in the form of its exclusion.

Since its origins, Agamben notes, law has had the power of defining what "bare life" (''zoe'', as opposed to ''bios'': qualified life) is by making this exclusive operation, while at the same time gaining power over it by making it the subject of political control. The power of law to actively separate "political" beings (citizens) from "bare life" (bodies) has carried on from Antiquity to Modernity – from, literally, Aristotle to Auschwitz. Aristotle, as Agamben notes, constitutes political life via a simultaneous inclusion and exclusion of "bare life": as Aristotle says, man is an animal born to life (''zen''), but existing with regard to the good life (''eu zen'') which can be achieved through politics. Bare life, in this ancient conception of politics, is that which must be transformed, via the State, into the "good life"; that is, bare life is that which is supposedly excluded from the higher aims of the state, yet is included precisely so that it may be transformed into this "good life". Sovereignty, then, is conceived from ancient times as the power which determines what or who is to be incorporated into the political body (in accord with its 'bios') by means of the more originary exclusion (or exception) of what is to remain outside of the political body—which is at the same time the source of that body's composition ('zoe'). According to Agamben, biopower, which takes the bare lives of the citizens into its political calculations, may be more marked in the modern state, but has essentially existed since the beginnings of sovereignty in the West, since this structure of ''ex-ception'' is essential to the core concept of sovereignty.

Agamben would continue to expand the theory of the state of exception first introduced in ''"Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life"'', ultimately leading ''"State of Exception"'' in 2005. During 2003, he delivered a lecture at European Graduate School describing the eclipse that politics has undergone. Instead of leaving a space between law and life, the space where human action is possible, the space that used to constitute politics, he argues that politics has “contaminated itself with law” in the state of exception. Because “only human action is able to cut the relationship between violence and law”, it becomes increasingly difficult within the state of exception for humanity to act against the State.

''State of Exception'' (2005)

In this book, Agamben traces the concept of 'state of exception' (''Ausnahmezustand'') used by Carl Schmitt to Roman ''justitium'' and ''auctoritas''. This leads him to a response to Carl Schmitt's definition of sovereignty as the power to proclaim state emergency.

Giorgio Agamben’s text ''State of Exception'' investigates the increase of power structures governments employ in supposed times of crisis. Within these times of crisis, Agamben refers to increased extension of power as states of exception, where questions of citizenship and individual rights can be diminished, superseded and rejected in the process of claiming this extension of power by a government. Agamben explores the effect of the state of exception on the individual by looking at the ideas of ''bios'' and ''zoe''.

The state of exception invests one person or government with the power and voice of authority over others extended well beyond where the law has existed in the past. “In every case, the state of exception marks a threshold at which logic and praxis blur with each other and a pure violence without ''logos'' claims to realize an enunciation without any real reference" (Agamben, pg 40). Agamben refers a continued state of exception to the Nazi state of Germany under Hitler’s rule. “The entire Third Reich can be considered a state of exception that lasted twelve years. In this sense, modern totalitarianism can be defined as the establishment, by means of the state of exception, of a legal civil war that allows for the physical elimination not only of political adversaries but of entire categories of citizens who for some reason cannot be integrated into the political system" (Agamben, pg 2).

The political power over others acquired through the state of exception, places one government – or one form or branch of government – as all powerful, operating outside of the laws. During such times of extension of power, certain forms of knowledge shall be privileged and accepted as true and certain voices shall be heard as valued, while of course, many others are not. This oppressive distinction holds great importance in relation to the production of knowledge. The process of both acquiring knowledge, and suppressing certain knowledge, is a violent act within a time of crisis.

Agamben’s ''State of Exception'' investigates how the suspension of laws within a state of emergency or crisis can become a prolonged state of being. More specifically, Agamben addresses how this prolonged state of exception operates to deprive individuals of their citizenship. When speaking about the military order issued by President George W. Bush on 13 November 2001, Agamben writes, “What is new about President Bush’s order is that it radically erases any legal status of the individual, thus producing a legally unnamable and unclassifiable being. Not only do the Taliban captured in Afghanistan not enjoy the status of POW’s as defined by the Geneva Convention, they do not even have the status of people charged with a crime according to American laws" (Agamben, pg 3). Many of the individuals captured in Afghanistan were taken to be held at Guantánamo Bay without trial. These individuals were termed as “enemy combatants.” Until 7 July 2006, these individuals had been treated outside of the Geneva Conventions by the United States administration.

''Auctoritas'', "charisma" and ''Führertum'' doctrine

Agamben shows that ''auctoritas'' and ''potestas'' are clearly distinct – although they form together a binary system". He quotes Mommsen, who explains that ''auctoritas'' is "less than an order and more than an advice".

While ''potestas'' derives from social function, ''auctoritas'' "immediately derives from the ''patres'' personal condition". As such, it is akin to Max Weber's concept of charisma. This is why the tradition ordered, at the king's death, the creation of the sovereign’s wax-double in the ''funus imaginarium'', as Ernst Kantorowicz demonstrated in ''The King's Two Bodies'' (1957). Hence, it is necessary to distinguish two bodies of the sovereign in order to assure the continuity of ''dignitas'' (term used by Kantorowicz, here a synonym of ''auctoritas''). Moreover, in the person detaining ''auctoritas'' – the sovereign – public life and private life have become inseparable. Augustus, the first Roman emperor who claimed ''auctoritas'' as the basis of ''princeps'' status in a famous passage of ''Res Gestae'', had opened up his house to public eyes.

The concept of ''auctoritas'' played a key-role in fascism and Nazism, in particular concerning Carl Schmitt's theories, argues Agamben:

Thus, Agamben opposes Foucault's concept of "biopolitics" to right (law), as he defines the state of exception, in ''Homo sacer'', as the inclusion of life by right under the figure of ex-ception, which is simultaneously inclusion and exclusion. Following Walter Benjamin's lead, he explains that our task would be to radically differentiate "pure violence" from right, instead of tying them together, as did Carl Schmitt.

Agamben concludes his chapter on "''Auctoritas'' and ''potestas''" writing:

Agamben’s thoughts on the state of emergency leads him to declare that the difference between dictatorship and democracy is thin indeed, as rule by decree became more and more common, starting from World War I and the reorganization of constitutional balance. Agamben often reminds that Hitler never ''abrogated'' the Weimar Constitution: he ''suspended'' it for the whole duration of the 3rd Reich with the Reichstag Fire Decree, issued on 28 February 1933. Indefinite suspension of law is what characterizes the state of exception. Thus, Agamben connects Greek political philosophy through to the concentration camps of 20th century fascism, and even further, to detainment camps in the likes of Guantanamo Bay or immigration detention centers, such as Bari, Italy, where asylum seekers have been imprisoned in football stadiums. In these kinds of camps, entire zones of exception are being formed: the state of exception becomes a status under which certain categories of people live, a ''capture'' of life by right. Sovereign law makes it possible to create entire areas in which the application of the law itself is held suspended, which is the basis of Bush administration's definition of an "enemy combatant".

''Interregnum'', ''justitium'' and ''nomos empsuchos'' (the sovereign as "living law")

In the chapter preceding "''Auctoritas'' and ''potestas''", Agamben advances an explanation of the transformation of ''justitium'', a technical term referring to the state of exception, declared to cope with ''tumultus'' state (rebellion, uprising, riots...), at the end of the Roman Republic, into a term simply referring to the mourning of the sovereign's death during ''interregnum'' periods:

The first formulation of the thesis according to which "the sovereign is a living law" found its first formulation on the treatise "On law and justice" by pseudo-Archytas, conserved by Stobaeus with Diotogene's treatise on sovereignty. It is the first attempt to conceive a form of sovereignty completely enfranchised from laws, being itself the source of legitimacy. This theory must be radically distinguished from natural rights theory or Antigone's appeal to the "eternal and unwritten laws" by which even monarchs must abide, as it is a theory of sovereignty (in fact, it is quite the reverse of Antigone's rebellion).

Pseudo-Archytas distinguished the sovereign (''basileus''), who is the law, from the magistrate (''archōn''), who limits himself to observing the law. "Identification between law and sovereign has as consequence, writes Agamben, the scission of law into a "living" law (''nomos empsuchos''), hierarchically superior, and a written law (''gramma''), which is subordinate to the first one". He then quotes A. Delatte's ''Essais sur la politique pythagoricienne'' (Paris, 1922), himself quoting the pseudo-Archytas:

:"I say that all communities are composed of an ''archōn'' (the magistrate who commands), a commanded one, and, as tierce party, laws. Among those ones, the living one is the sovereign (''ho men empsuchos ho basileus''), and the inanimate one is the letter (''gramma''). Law is the first element, the king is legal, the magistrate accorded to law, the commanded free and all of the city happy; but, in case of corruption ("dévoiement"), the sovereign is a tyrant, the magistrate is not accorded to law and the community is unhappy."

Criticism of US response to "9–11"

Giorgio Agamben is particularly critical of the United States' response to 11 September 2001, and its instrumentalization as a permanent condition that legitimizes a "state of exception" as the dominant paradigm for governing in contemporary politics. He warns against a "generalization of the state of exception" through laws like the USA PATRIOT Act, which means a permanent installment of martial law and emergency powers. In January 2004, he refused to give a lecture in the United States because under the US-VISIT he would have been required to give up his biometric information, which he believed stripped him to a state of "bare life" (''zoe'') and was akin to the tattooing that the Nazis did during World War II.

However, Agamben's criticisms target a broader scope than the US "war on terror". As he points out in ''State of Exception'' (2005), rule by decree has become common since World War I in all modern states, and has been since then generalized and abused. Agamben points out a general tendency of modernity, recalling for example that when Francis Galton and Alphonse Bertillon invented "judicial photography" for "anthropometric identification", the procedure was reserved to criminals; to the contrary, today's society is tending toward a generalization of this procedure to all citizens, placing the population under permanent suspicion and surveillance: "The political body thus has become a criminal body". And Agamben notes that the Jews deportation in France and other occupied countries was made possible by the photos taken from identity cards. Furthermore, Agamben's political criticisms open up in a larger philosophical critique of the concept of sovereignty itself, which he explains is intrinsically related to the state of exception.

Endnotes and references

Bibliography

Agamben's major books are listed in order of first Italian publication (with the exception of ''Potentialities,'' which first appeared in English), and English translations are listed where available. There are translations of most writings in German, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. There is also an updated list of publications including translations to other languages and links to texts available at his faculty page.

''L'uomo senza contenuto'' (1970). Translated by Lisa Albert as ''The Man without Content'' (1999). 0-8047-3554-9

''Stanze. La parola e il fantasma nella cultura occidentale'' (1977). Trans. Ronald L. Martinez as ''Stanzas: Word and Phantasm in Western Culture'' (1992). 0-8166-2038-5

''Infanzia e storia: Distruzione dell'esperienza e origine della storia'' (1978). Trans. Liz Heron as ''Infancy and History: The Destruction of Experience'' (1993). 0-86091-645-6

''Il linguaggio e la morte: Un seminario sul luogo della negatività'' (1982). Trans. Karen E. Pinkus with Michael Hardt as ''Language and Death: The Place of Negativity'' (1991). ISBN 0-8166-4923-5

''Idea della prosa'' (1985). Trans. Michael Sullivan and Sam Whitsitt as ''Idea of Prose'' (1995). ISBN 0-7914-2380-8

''La comunità che viene'' (1990). Trans. Michael Hardt as ''The Coming Community'' (1993). ISBN 0-8166-2235-3

''Bartleby, la formula della creazione'' (1993, with Gilles Deleuze). Agamben's essay trans. Daniel Heller-Roazen in ''Potentialities,'' below (1999). ISBN 0-8047-3278-7. Deleuze's essay trans. in Deleuze, ''Essays Clinical and Critical'' (1997). ISBN 0816625697

''Homo Sacer: Il potere soverano e la vita nuda'' (1995). Trans. Daniel Heller-Roazen as ''Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life'' (1998). ISBN 0-8047-3218-3

''Mezzi senza fine. Note sulla politica'' (1996). Trans. Vincenzo Binetti and Cesare Casarino as ''Means Without End: Notes of Politics'' (2000). ISBN 0-8166-3036-4

''Categorie italiane. Studi di poetica'' (1996). Trans. Daniel Heller-Roazen as ''The End of the Poem: Studies in Poetics'' (1999). ISBN 0-8047-3022-9

''Quel che resta di Auschwitz. L'archivio e il testimone (Homo sacer III)'' (1998). Trans. Daniel Heller-Roazen as ''Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive. Homo Sacer III'' (2002). ISBN 1-890951-17-X

''Potentialities: Collected Essays in Philosophy.'' (1999). First published in English translation and edited by Daniel Heller-Roazen. ISBN 0-8047-3278-7. Published in the original Italian, with additional essays, as ''La potenza del pensiero: Saggi e conferenza'' (2005).

''Il tempo che resta. Un commento alla Lettera ai Romani'' (2000). Trans. Patricia Dailey as ''The Time that Remains: A Commentary on the Letter to the Romans'' (2005). ISBN 0-8047-4383-5

''L'aperto. L'uomo e l'animale'' (2002). Trans. Kevin Attell as ''The Open: Man and Animal'' (2004). ISBN 0-8047-4738-5

''Stato di Eccezione. Homo sacer, 2,1'' (2003). Trans. Kevin Attell as ''State of Exception'' (2005). ISBN 0-226-00925-4

''Profanazioni'' (2005). Trans. Jeff Fort as ''Profanations'' (2008). ISBN 189095182X

''Che cos'è un dispositivo?'' (2006). Trans. David Kishik and Stefan Pedatella in ''What is an Apparatus? and Other Essays'' (2009). ISBN 0-8047-6230-9

''L'amico'' (2007). Trans. David Kishik and Stefan Pedatella in ''What is an Apparatus? and Other Essays'' (2009). ISBN 0-8047-6230-9

''Ninfe'' (2007).

''Il regno e la gloria. Per una genealogia teologica dell'economia e del governo. Homo sacer 2,2'' (2007). Trans. Lorenzo Chiesa with Matteo Mandarini as ''The Kingdom and the Glory: For a Theological Genealogy of Economy and Government'' (forthcoming August 2011). ISBN 978-0804760164

''Che cos'è il contemporaneo?'' (2007). Trans. David Kishik and Stefan Pedatella in ''What is an Apparatus? and Other Essays'' (2009). ISBN 0-8047-6230-9

''Signatura rerum. Sul Metodo'' (2008). Trans. Luca di Santo and Kevin Attell as ''The Signature of All Things: On Method'' (2009). ISBN 978-1-890951-98-6

''Il sacramento del linguaggio. Archeologia del giuramento. Homo sacer 2,3'' (2008). Trans. Adam Kotsko as ''The Sacrament of Language: An Archaeology of the Oath'' (2011).

''Nudità'' (2009). Trans. David Kishik and Stefan Pedatella as ''Nudities'' (2010). ISBN 978-0804769501

''Angeli. Ebraismo Cristianesimo Islam'' (ed. Emanuele Coccia and Giorgio Agamben). Neripozza, Vicenza 2009.

''La Chiesa e il Regno'' (2010). ISBN 978-887452-226-2.

''La ragazza indicibile. Mito e mistero di Kore'' (2010, with Monica Ferrando.) ISBN 978-8837077174.

''Altissima povertà. Regola e forma di vita nel monachesimo'' (2011). ISBN 978-8854505452.

''Opus Dei. Archeologia dell'ufficio'' (2011). ISBN 978-8833922478.

Various articles published by ''Multitudes'', available here.

''The State of Emergency'', extract from a lecture given at the Centre Roland Barthes-University of Paris VII, Denis Diderot

Further reading

Calarco, Matthew and Steven DeCaroli, eds. ''Giorgio Agamben: Sovereignty and Life.'' Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007.

Clemens, Justin, Nicholas Heron, and Alex Murray, eds. ''The Work of Giorgio Agamben: Law, Literature, Life.'' Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008.

de la Durantaye, Leland. ''Giorgio Agamben: A Critical Introduction.'' Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2009.

Derrida, Jacques. ''The Beast and the Sovereign, Volume 1''. Ed. Michel Lisse, Marie-Louise Mallet, and Ginette Michaud. Trans. Geoff Bennington. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009. 91-96, 315-334.

Dickinson, Colby. ''Agamben and Theology.'' London and New York: T&T; Clark International, 2011. [Forthcoming.]

Geulen, Eva. ''Giorgio Agamben zur Einführung.'' Hamburg: Junius Verlag, 2005.

Kishik, David. ''The Power of Life: Agamben and the Coming Politics''. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2011. [Forthcoming.]

LaCapra, Dominick. "Approaching Limit Events: Siting Agamben". In ''History in Transit: Experience, Identity, Critical Theory''. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004. 144-194.

Mills, Catherine. ''The Philosophy of Giorgio Agamben.'' Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2009.

Murray, Alex. ''Giorgio Agamben.'' London and New York: Routledge, 2010.

Murray, Alex and Jessica Whyte. ''The Agamben Dictionary.'' Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011. [Forthcoming.]

Norris, Andrew, ed. ''Politics, Metaphysics, and Death: Essays on Giorgio Agamben’s Homo Sacer.'' Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005.

Ross, Alison, ed. ''The Agamben Effect.'' A special issue of the ''South Atlantic Quarterly,'' Volume 107, Number 1, Winter 2008.

Wall, Thomas Carl. ''Radical Passivity: Lévinas, Blanchot, and Agamben.'' New York: State University of New York Press, 1999.

Watkin, William. ''Literary Agamben: Adventures in Logopoiesis.'' London and New York: Continuum, 2010.

Zartaloudis, Thanos. ''Giorgio Agamben: Power, Law and the Uses of Criticism.'' London and New York: Routledge, 2010.

Video lectures

Agamben, Giorgio. Aristotle's De Anima and the Division of Life. European Graduate School. 2009

Agamben, Giorgio. Forms of Power. European Graduate School. 2009

Agamben, Giorgio (and Judith Butler). Eichmann, Law and Justice. European Graduate School. 2009

Agamben, Giorgio. The Problem of Subjectivity. European Graduate School. 2009

Agamben, Giorgio. Liturgia and the Modern State. European Graduate School. 2009

Agamben, Giorgio. The Process of the Subject in Michel Foucault. European Graduate School. 2009

Agamben, Giorgio. Literature and the Paradox of Monasticism. European Graduate School. 2009

Agamben, Giorgio. The Relation of Rule and Life. European Graduate School. 2009

Agamben, Giorgio. A Genealogy of Monasticism. European Graduate School. 2009

Agamben, Giorgio. The Sacrifice in Liturgy. European Graduate School. 2009

Agamben, Giorgio. On Contemporaneity. European Graduate School. 2007

Agamben, Giorgio. The Power and the Glory. Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). 01/11/2007

Agamben, Giorgio. What is a Dispositive? European Graduate School. 2005

Agamben, Giorgio. The State of Exception – Der Ausnahmezustand. European Graduate School. 2003.

Agamben, Giorgio. What is a Paradigm. European Graduate School. 2002

See also

Agamben's explanation of Auctoritas

Agamben's response to Carl Schmitt's definition of sovereignty as the power to decide state exception

''Basileus''

''Homo sacer''

''Interregnum''

''Justitium''

Unlawful combatants

External links

Giorgio Agamben Faculty Page at European Graduate School

Agamben Entry at Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Review of Agamben, ''Profanations'', by Daniel Ross

On Giorgio Agamben's ''Profanations'', by Mehdi Belhaj Kacem

Interview with Giorgio Agamben – Life, A Work of Art Without an Author: The State of Exception, the Administration of Disorder and Private Life

Review of ''State of Exception'', by Brett Neilson

/ The Ripe Fruit of Redemption, by Toni Negri

French

''"État d'exception" de G. Agamben'', by Sandra Salomon

Italian

filosofico.net Italian page dedicated to Agamben

Polish

Projekt Agamben

Hebrew

Review of ''State of Exception'', Yehouda Shenhav, Sfarim Haaretz, 23.11.2005.

Category:1942 births Category:Living people Category:People from Rome (city) Category:20th-century Italian philosophers Category:Italian political theorists Category:Academics of the Warburg Institute Category:Political philosophers Category:Emergency laws Category:University of Düsseldorf alumni Category:University of Verona faculty Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty Category:Northwestern University faculty Category:European Graduate School faculty

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