What makes me think these two jokers (Negri and Hardt) went back to 1993 in order to find sufficient inspiration to finish off their 3-book contract with Harvard Univ. Press? Their sustained line of thought and argument is now FINISHED. Onwards to the commonwealth. Pres. Obama is the messiah. The commonwealth utopia is in sight, even if we can not grasp its essence yet, since that essence is an essence of not becoming, whatsoever it is not, not yet. When I first read 'Empire' I thought it was a silly response to Deleuze and Guattari (who had written a bestseller in Europe--one of those books everyone bought but no one read) and to Lyotard and Baurdrillard (who were anything but utopists but got a lot more press than Negri). Only now do I grasp the overall Agambenian arch here.
http://www.egs.edu/faculty/giorgio-agamben/biography/ In The Coming Community (1993) Agamben develops the concept of community and the social implications of his philosophical thought. Agamben's exploration is, in part, a contemporary response to the work of Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Blanchot, Jean-Luc Nancy, and, more historically, Plato, Spinoza, and medieval scholars and theorists of Judeo-Christian scriptures. "The Coming Community tries to designate a community beyond any conception available under this name; not a community of essence, a being-together of existences; that is to say: precisely what political as well as religious identities can no longer grasp. Nothing less." Jean-Luc Nancy http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/HARCOM.html Commonwealth Michael Hardt Antonio Negri When Empire appeared in 2000, it defined the political and economic challenges of the era of globalization and, thrillingly, found in them possibilities for new and more democratic forms of social organization. Now, with Commonwealth, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri conclude the trilogy begun with Empire and continued in Multitude, proposing an ethics of freedom for living in our common world and articulating a possible constitution for our common wealth. Drawing on scenarios from around the globe and elucidating the themes that unite them, Hardt and Negri focus on the logic of institutions and the models of governance adequate to our understanding of a global commonwealth. They argue for the idea of the “common” to replace the opposition of private and public and the politics predicated on that opposition. Ultimately, they articulate the theoretical bases for what they call “governing the revolution.” Though this book functions as an extension and a completion of a sustained line of Hardt and Negri’s thought, it also stands alone and is entirely accessible to readers who are not familiar with the previous works. It is certain to appeal to, challenge, and enrich the thinking of anyone interested in questions of politics and globalization. -- CJ Japan Higher Education Outlook http://japanheo.blogspot.com/ ELT in Japan http://eltinjapan.blogspot.com/ We are Feral Cats http://wearechikineko.blogspot.com/ _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
