Agamben and the Signature of Astrology

This book examines how astrology appears in the works of Giorgio Agamben as a means to visualize the significance of the central elements in his thinking on issues such as potentiality, biopolitics, and the signature. The astrological signature becomes an alternative mode to theology, politics, and philosophy as a way of understanding history.

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The work of Giorgio Agamben, one of the world’s most important living philosophers, has been the object of much scrutiny. Yet, there is one dimension of his thought that remains unexamined by scholars: the presence of the ancient science of astrology in his writings. This book, the first of its kind, identifies the astrological elements and explains the implications of their usage by Agamben. In so doing, this study challenges us to imagine Agamben’s thought in a radically new light. A critical account of the presence of astrology and related themes in Agamben’s writings, ranging from the earlier works to the more recent publications, illustrates that the astrological signature constitutes a mode of philosophical archaeology that allows for an enhanced understanding of concepts that are central to his works, such as potentiality, the signature, bare life and biopolitics.