The Agambenian Left and the Returnof Political Ontology

Abstract

The essay aims to frame Agamben’s work in discussions on contemporary political ontology and the impact of such work on the academic left. Therefore, the essay is divided into two parts. The first part describes the return of political ontology as one of the most prominent modalities of contemporary political philosophy. In particular, this section of the essay frames and generates the hermeneutic conditions to understand Giorgio Agamben’s work as a political ontology of use. The second part postulates the notion of “Agambenian Left”, especially the recepction of the work and the style inspired by Agamben by the French collective TIQQUN. With the introduction of this notion, the essay argues the explanatory capacity of the political ontology of use to divide political, aesthetic and ontological positions. The conclusion of the text is that, finally, Agamben’s work has an epistemological and political impact capable of grouping or generating various philosophical, opposite and complementary styles: an epistemic divide between “agambenian right” and “agambenian left”.