Agamben’s uses of Wittgenstein: An overall critical assessment

Agamben has often made explicit references to the reflexion of Wittgenstein: it is thus surprising to note that this important influence of his philosophy has been almost completely ignored. In this article, my aim is to propose an overall assessment of Agamben’s interpretation of Wittgenstein’s philosophy. In order to do so, I have isolated two themes where Wittgenstein’s influence is particularly evident: namely, the concepts of Irreparable and Form-of-life. My thesis is that, while regarding the first, Agamben proposes an original interpretation of a major topic of the Tractatus – that is, the mystical –, the second is not associable with the namesake Wittgensteinian concept. The reason of this misunderstanding is due to the fact that Agamben interprets the concept of form of life with the same theoretical framework he used in his reading of the Tractatus, thus ignoring the shift of paradigm which divides it from the subsequent Wittgensteinian philosophy.