Praxis Seminar Series 2025-26: Session 21

Saul Newman

Goldsmiths University of London

Destituent power, ontological anarchy and insurrectionary thought in Giorgio Agamben and Stirner

19 May 2026, 17:15

Sala Mattos Romão (Room C201.J – Department of Philosophy)

School of Arts and Humanities – University of Lisbon

 

Abstract

My aim here is to develop an understanding of the insurrection as a distinct political idea. I will do this by exploring the parallel thinking of contemporary Italian philosopher, Giorgio Agamben and nineteenth-century German philosopher and Young Hegelian, Max Stirner. I will argue that, despite their differences, they share an insurrectionary theoretical approach which can help us clarify the coordinates of the contemporary political horizon. I shall suggest that both thinkers propose a form of political activity and ethics which is neither Marxist nor, strictly speaking, anarchist – although it is certainly closer to the latter – and which is reducible neither to constituent nor constituted power but which, rather, affirms a kind of destituent power or, as I put it, an indifference to power.

 

This activity is funded by Portuguese national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., within the project UID/00310/2025, Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa (DOI: https://doi.org/10.54499/UID/00310/2025).