Homo sacer

In 'Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life,' Giorgio Agamben delves into the concept of sovereignty and its intrinsic connection to the idea of 'bare life.

' He argues that from the earliest treatises of political theory, notably in Aristotle's notion of man as a political animal, a notion of sovereignty as power over 'life' is implicit.

Agamben draws upon Foucault's analysis of biopolitics and Carl Schmitt's idea of the sovereign's status as the exception to the rules he safeguards.

He defines the 'sacred person' as one who can be killed and yet not sacrificed, a paradox that is operative in the status of the modern individual living in a system that exerts control over the collective 'naked life' of all individuals.

The book examines how the sacred and the taboo are interlinked with sovereignty, and how this relationship shapes modern politics and the individual's place within society.