[Book Review] Giorgio Agamben's 'Homo Sacer'—When Our Lives Become 'Bare'
Introduction
It seems that quietly, yet surely, there are times when a line is drawn for us. Even when we believe we are protected, there are moments under certain circumstances when that protection is revoked. It is not that we have been abandoned, but we are undeniably beyond reach. There are times when a person is left standing alone in such an ambiguous place.
Giorgio Agamben's 'Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life' is a book that brings exactly such a state into sharp focus as a philosophical concept. Starting from the unique human figure found in ancient Roman law, 'Homo Sacer' (the sacred man), Agamben questions what politics is, what power is, and what it means to be 'alive'.
Although this book is considered somewhat difficult, the key to deciphering it is the question, 'What is Homo Sacer?' Let us first organize its contents.
Chapter 1: What is Homo Sacer?—The Boundary Between Bare Life and Law
The term 'Homo Sacer' is translated from Latin as 'sacred man.' However, this 'sacredness' has nothing to do with blessings or nobility; rather, it is an existence pregnant with deep contradiction and sorrow. In ancient Roman law, those designated as Homo Sacer were expelled from society yet placed in a special status, burdened with the strange position of being“not legally punishable if killed by anyone,” but “not eligible for religious sacrifice”.
Agamben focuses on this ancient concept and finds in it the depths of modern politics. That is to say,Homo Sacer is 'a human being who is inside the law but placed outside the law,' and a symbol of the human as 'bare life' (nuda vita).
The 'bare life' referred to here points to a state where all rights and attributes have been stripped from a human being, leaving only biological life. It is life stripped naked, deprived of its dignity as a political being. Agamben points out that it is precisely in modern society that such 'bare life' continues to be produced.
For example, people in modern detention centers. There, even though people are managed by the state, they are in a state of being excluded from the state's legal protection. They seem to be within the law, yet at the same time, they are cast outside of it. This is exactly the structure of Homo Sacer.
And this structure lurks in more familiar places as well. The homeless, refugees, those without family registers, and people suffering from mental illness or disabilities who fall through the cracks of institutional support. As beings who have slipped from the gaze of the system, they always carry the danger of being treated as 'bare life' while remaining within society.
However, this concept does not apply only to 'people far away.' At some point, someone may suddenly lose their job, become unable to receive social security, find their pleas for help go unanswered, and be driven into a state of merely existing. Or, in an emergency, they may be labeled an 'essential worker' while being given no consideration for the risks to their life or fair compensation. At such times, people may quietly transition into Homo Sacer.
The Homo Sacer that Agamben speaks of is an existence that is outside the system and considered an 'exception,' while simultaneously exposing the paradox that society is built upon the creation of exceptions.We maintain order by excluding something. Realizing this structure might be the first step in reading 'Homo Sacer'.
To deepen this perspective further, Michel Foucault's discussion of 'biopolitics' serves as an important background. Foucault pointed out that political power since the modern era has begun to manage the 'life' of human beings itself. Birth rates, life expectancy, health, illness, aging, and death—these biological dimensions have become the objects of state governance.
Agamben re-examines this way of politics surrounding life from its very roots. He returns to the vocabulary of ancient Greece and distinguishes between two forms of life: 'bios' and 'zoē.' Bios is 'human-like life' with ethical and political meaning, while zoē is merely biological life.
According to Agamben,Western politics has been established by excluding this zoē from the system, while in reality relying on that 'bare life'. Slaves, the sick, or 'people who no longer fulfill their roles' are driven from the political arena, yet thatstructure of exclusion is what supports the political order—such a paradox is condensed in the concept of Homo Sacer.
Chapter 2: The State of Exception and the Structure of Sovereignty—When the Law is Suspended
In Agamben's argument,the concept of the 'state of exception'holds a central meaning. This is a framework that allows the state to temporarily suspend the application of the law in a crisis situation and make political judgments that differ from the norm. For example, under a declaration of emergency such as war, terrorism, or a pandemic, the state can 'temporarily' justify the restriction of certain legal procedures and rights.
It was the German legal scholar Carl Schmitt who systematized this way of thinking. He stated, 'The sovereign is he who decides on the state of exception.' In other words, he argued that sovereignty is the existence that can manipulate the framework of the law from the outside.
While Agamben incorporates this theory, he reinterprets it more critically and structurally. To him,the state of exception is not merely a measure for emergencies, but rather an 'exception dissolved into daily life' lurking at the foundation of the modern state, and the problem is that it is becoming normalized.
We tend to think, 'It can't be helped because it's an emergency,' but if that state continues to be extended, it eventually becomes the new normal. It is precisely in the moment when the law ceases to function that the nature of sovereignty is revealed, and the human beings placed there are transformed into 'bare life' stripped of legal protection.
In such a state, the structure of Homo Sacer reappears. Those placed in a state of exception are burdened with the duty to obey the law, yet they possess no right to the protection of the law. For example, concentration camps, quarantine stations, temporary housing, refugee camps, or makeshift isolation facilities—these are all spaces in a state of exception, and according to Agamben, they are the very 'nomos (spatial order) of modernity'.
The exception is not a 'temporary derailment' but something installed at the periphery of the system as a 'convenient adjustment valve for the regime.' To expose this, Agamben uses the concept of Homo Sacer as a clue to clarifythe structure of silence that arises between sovereignty and life.
Chapter 3: Silent Labor—From a Certain Workplace Under a State of Emergency
To apply this theory to the present day, it might be enough to simply turn our gaze toward our own feet. In 2020, the state of emergency was declared due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst that, one bookstore was facing a complex situation.
Due to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's policy, 'used bookstores' were subject to requests for closure, while 'new bookstores' were not. The line for that judgment remained ambiguous, causing confusion in many workplaces.
At one new bookstore, while the number of customers increased, staff continued to work while harboring the fear of infection. Amidst an atmosphere of 'be grateful you can work' and 'books are daily necessities,' they spent their days without being protected either psychologically or institutionally.
It is said that among the customers, there were not a few who entered without masks or vented their frustration on the staff. Even so, the labor of the staff was neither visualized nor appreciated, and it was not reflected in their wages.
This situation might be called a concrete example that brings the'Homo Sacer-like state of being kept alive while being abandoned'into the context of modern Japan. It is as if they are within the system, yet when it comes down to it, there is no support or consideration. Roles are demanded, but protection is not provided. Is the figure of such a worker not in a state close to 'bare life'?
To borrow Agamben's words, this is a space of silence in a state of exception. A place where the voices of workers do not reach the vocabulary of politics or the systems of welfare. Yet, that very silence exposes the structural boundaries of society.
Chapter 4: The Starting Point of 'Homo Sacer'—The Core of Thought and the Trajectory of Development
'Homo Sacer' was published in 1995 and is the first work in Agamben's philosophical project, the 'Homo Sacer series.' Starting from this volume, he spent about 20 years publishing multiple related works.The keywords that run through the entire project are 'bare life,' 'state of exception,' and 'sovereignty'.
The theory developed in this book is explored from more multifaceted angles in subsequent works in the series. For example, 'State of Exception' further pursues the issue of emergency laws in modern states, revealing the structure in which the exception is 'embedded within the system.' 'Remnants of Auschwitz' addressed the rupture of humanity and the void of ethics in the extreme situation of the concentration camp.
Furthermore, 'The Kingdom and the Glory' examines the intersection of the two realms of politics and economy, power and glory, while 'The Highest Poverty' presents the concept of 'use' found in the lifestyles of Franciscan friars as a new possibility of life that transcends ownership and domination. These are all attempts derived from the problem consciousness presented in 'Homo Sacer,' and in that sense, this book can be called the 'root' and the 'seed' of the series.
Agamben's thought does not stop at mere political criticism or social analysis. His interest always returns to the questions of 'what is a human being' and 'what does it mean to live.' Therefore, for instance, if Homo Sacer is an existence driven outside the state, was that human truly 'excluded,' or were they 'included' in a different way? Agamben's argument quietly illuminatesthe paradox of inclusion-exclusion, which is 'to incorporate by driving out to the exterior'.
This is a thought that is philosophical while also having a somewhat poetic touch. While Agamben speaks of the cold structures of systems and laws, he does not lose sight of the figure of the 'individual' left behind within them. That is perhaps why this book, despite being abstract, strangely resonates with our own 'bodies'.
Conclusion: That Boundary Line Is Right Beside Us
The book 'Homo Sacer' might not be a book to 'read,' but a book to 'pause' with.
We live our days thinking we are inside the system without any doubt. But at some point, due to some situation or judgment, we might be driven outside that boundary line. Or perhaps, someone right next to us is already standing outside that line. When we realize that, the structure depicted in 'Homo Sacer' is no longer an abstract theory, but rises up as our own story.
The homeless, refugees, those without family registers, those who have taken their own lives. The elderly who have been neglected, people who are forced to work without gratitude or protection. They are'those who have been excluded' and at the same time 'those who have been conveniently placed for the system'.
It is as if they are abandoned, yet they are kept alive. It is as if they are kept alive, yet they are abandoned. Within such a dual structure, people are burdened with the way of being as Homo Sacer.
Agamben's argument does not provide an answer to the question of 'how to recover bare life.' Nevertheless, through this book, we can quietly re-examine the institutions within which we live and the boundaries by which we are surrounded.
The very place where we pause in this way may perhaps be the ground where 'an ethics not yet put into words' or 'a faint sense of solidarity' begins to sprout.
At that moment, the concept of Homo Sacer may no longer be the name of the exiled, but may instead transform into a form of hope that we have not yet believed in.