Abstract:

In terms of the history of Western political thought, the first quarter of the 20th century constitutes a turning point. Because, depending on the experience of totalitarianism, there is a crisis that should be considered as philosophical as well as political. For this reason, it has often seemed inevitable to establish a relationship between the basic political problems of today, from the refugee problem to the law of the state of emergency, and the philosophical-political perspective that prepared the totalitarianism. The Italian thinker Giorgio Agamben establishes this connection within the framework of an attempt to establish the political paradigm of modernity, and by making a backward reading of Western political thought, he reveals the relationship between the paradigm of modernity and Aristotle's definition of politics. He argues that Western political thought is shaped as a purification and sorting activity applied on life, and shows that this thought has reached today as a dominant power paradigm through Hobbes. In essence, he argues that the "anthropological machine", which operates on distinctions between animal life and political life, or human and non-human, determines the horizon of modern political thought. Based on the basic concepts of Agamben's political philosophy, this article argues that today's democracies and legal systems can have a future to the extent that they confront the logic of the anthropological machine.