This book is a continuation of Giorgio Agamben's investigation of political theory, which began with the highly influential volume Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Having already traced the roots of the idea of sovereignty, sacredness, and economy, he now turns to a perhaps unlikely topic: the concept of the oath. Following the Italian scholar Paolo Prodi, Agamben sees the oath as foundational for Western politics and undertakes an exploration of the roots of the phenomenon of the oath in human experience. He rejects the common idea that the oath finds its origin in religion, arguing instead that the oath points toward a particular response to the experience of language, a response that gave birth to both religion and law as we now know them. This book is important not only for readers of Agamben or of continental philosophy more broadly, but for anyone interested in questions relating to the relationships among religion, law, and language.
吉奥乔•阿甘本（1942- ），意大利著名哲学家，古典学家，也是当今世界上最富影响力的思想家之一。现在在威尼斯高等建筑学院、门德里西奥建筑学院、巴黎的哲学国际学院以及欧洲高等学院同时担任教职。他早年求学于罗马，后辗转于法国的莱托、英国的伦敦，并在著名的瓦堡研究所从事研究 工作。1995年，一部《神圣人：主权权力与赤裸生命》让他在世界思想界声名鹊起，迄今为止，他已经围绕“神圣人”系列出版了9部著作（其中最著名的包括《王国与荣耀》《语言的圣礼》《例外状态》《最高的贫困》《身体之用》等）。在这些著作中，阿甘本依循着福柯在法兰西学院的轨迹，探索了从古希腊以及中世纪以来，西方社会政治权力及其治理术是如何在政治生活中展开的，又是如何将我们的生命分割为政治生命和赤裸生命的。他的其他著作还包括《诗的终结》、《宁芙》、《潜能》等。
译者简介
蓝江，男，1977年出生，...