Can philosophy explain Nazi violence? Giorgio Agamben and the problem of the ‘historico-philosophical’ method

摘要

This article critically evaluates Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer, especially the book's central thesis that the mechanism of ‘inclusive exclusion' was at the origin of Nazi violence. There is little factual basis to support Agamben's philosophical arguments, I find. His failures and errors organically derive from his methodological stance-what he calls the ‘historico-philosophical method’. This method is premised on his monisic view of NS violence that imagines a primordial oneness subtending all differing instances of Nazi-perpetrated mass killing in discourse, cause, purpose and the Knower. In the conclusion I explain how my close-up study of this particular philosopher yields useful pointers, both methodological and ethical, for further investigation into the global question announced in the title of this article, ‘Can philosophy explain Nazi violence?'View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2011.559113