Paolo Napoli

Giorgio Agamben, Altissima povertà. Regole monastiche e forma di vita and Giorgio Agamben, Opus Dei. Archeologia dell'ufficio

giorgio agamben inaugurated the longest lasting and most considerable intellectual project of contemporary philosophy when publishing Homo sacer (1995).1 since then, law and theology not only offer a testing ground for speculation: they have provided structure for speculation itself. Philosophical thought can no longer disregard the essential contribution of these two rival disciplines. altissima povertà (2011)2 and opus Dei (2012)3 represent the two most recent works in the integration of legal and theological research with that of philosophical thought in which, as already seen in agamben’s il regno e la Gloria (2007),4 the ‘archaeological dig’ of early christian texts and the medieval reflection are intertwined. the focal point is the institutional problem of rethinking the basic conditions of philosophy—ie ontology. this never goes neglected because of the unavoidable relationship between ‘law’ and ‘fact’. Perhaps we should rather speak of two ontologies. according to agamben, the western world thinks and acts in the ontology of being and the ontology of duty. Kant had already associated these concepts in a peremptory way: the ontology of command, typical of the juridical sphere, is expressed by the imperative mood (esto) and possesses a performative character; whereas the philosophical-scientific ontology of being is expressed by the indicative mood (est). thus, being and acting find themselves