Review 11: What Is Philosophy? by Giorgio Agamben

Now That Is What I Call Philosophical Epiphany

—A Review of What Is Philosophy? by Giorgio Agamben

This is one if not the best book of modern philosophy I have read. 

Do not be fooled by the title. 

This is not a prosaic answer to the question 'what is philosophy?' done by way of an accessible and ultimately sterile introduction. 

This is instead a ground-breaking investigation into the very possibility of philosophy as contained in the limits of language and its relationship to 'the things themselves'.

I say ground-breaking because my understanding of Plato's metaphysics—among other things—was hugely clarified in the few hours it took me to read this book.

Indeed, I was never enamoured with superficial interpretations of Plato's Theory of Ideas as being 'universals'. 

Agamben sets the record straight when it comes to Plato's (ontological) understanding of language, and points out where Aristotle misunderstood his master Plato in his own meditations on language.

Poetry, mathematics, modern science generally and, by the very end, music, also come into consideration in this book, particularly in their relationship to philosophy.

Like other great philosophical books of its kind, What Is Philosophy? hit me with mental epiphany after mental epiphany. 

However, translating the text's esoteric and tangent-rich argumentation into layman's terms for the benefit of everyday understanding can only come across as daft, however pretentious of me this may sound.

But that need not be so surprising. 

We would not paraphrase a poem into everyday spoken language and expect it to retain its artistic magic would we?

Anyway this late opus by Giorgio Agamben earns an easy five stars from me.