When the Word Becomes Flesh: Language and Human Nature

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Paolo Virno (Professore Associato, Universita' Degli Studi Roma Tre) Giuseppina Mecchia

When the Word Becomes Flesh

Language and Human Nature

Paolo Virno (Professore Associato, Universita' Degli Studi Roma Tre), Giuseppina Mecchia

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English

Semiotext (E)
01 May 2015

Philosophy of language; Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge

Series: Semiotext(e) / Foreign Agents

Virno's meditation on speech as an intrinsically political practice mediating between biological invariants and changing historical determinations.

Originally published in Italian in 2002, When the Word Becomes Flesh provides a compelling contribution to the understanding of language and its relation to human nature and social relationships. Adopting Aristotle's definition of the human being as a linguistic and political animal, Paolo Virno frames the act of speech as a foundational philosophical issue-an act that in its purely performative essence ultimately determines our ability to pass from the state of possibility to one of actuality- that is, from the power to act to action itself. As the ultimate public act, speech reveals itself to be an intrinsically political practice mediating between biological invariants and changing historical determinations. In his most complete reflection on the topic to date, Virno shows how language directly expresses the conditions of possibility for our experience, from both a transcendental and a biological point of view.

Drawing on the work of such twentieth-century giants as Ferdinand de Saussure, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Edmund Husserl, and Gottlob Frege, Virno constructs a powerful linguistic meditation on the political challenges faced by the human species in the twenty-first century. It is in language that human nature and our historical potentialities are fully revealed, and it is language that can guide us toward a more aware and purposeful realization of them.

By: Paolo Virno (Professore Associato Universita' Degli Studi Roma Tre)
Translated by: Giuseppina Mecchia
Imprint: Semiotext (E)
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 19mm
Weight: 363g
ISBN: 9781584350941
ISBN 10: 1584350946
Series: Semiotext(e) / Foreign Agents
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 01 May 2015
Recommended Age: From 18
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Paolo Virno is an Italian philosopher, semiologist, and a prominent figure among the Italian Postfordist thinkers. He currently teaches at the University of Rome and is the author of A Grammar of the Multitude and Multitude Between Innovation and Negation, both published in English by Semiotext(e).

Reviews for When the Word Becomes Flesh: Language and Human Nature

...a book filled with piercing insights and a spell-binding constellation of ideas about the speaking animal and its history - and how knowing more about both helps us to make sense of our contemporary world. -Theory and Event ...a book filled with piercing insights and a spell-binding constellation of ideas about the speaking animal and its history - and how knowing more about both helps us to make sense of our contemporary world. -Theory and Event * Reviews *