AGAMBEN’İN EGEMEN İSTİSNASI ÜZERİNE: EGEMENLİĞİN POLİTİK ONTOLOJİSİ

Abstract

On Agamben’s account of the exception, the question of what it is to be exceptional can only be clarified by going back to the history of political philosophy. For Agamben, one of the most important figures in that history is Carl Schmitt whose definition of the sovereign gives occasion to the paradoxical emergence of sovereignty. Schmitt’s sovereign is located either inside or outside of the legal order. Agamben proposes the neither/nor, instead of the either/or, to explain the relation of sovereign to naked live through the exception at the ontological level by demonstrating that Schmitt’s sovereign is indeed located inside or outside of the legal order at once. In this study, I examine how Agamben’s proposed ontological logic of the sovereign exception inserts inside and outside of the law into a functional paradigmatic totality. From the perspective of Agamben’s new political ontology, all legal and political theories, as well as regimes, based on the presupposed duality of inside and outside of the law, whether they are liberal democracies or authoritarian, will inevitably find themselves in the same vicious circle of inside/outside. Thus, emergency situations ought not to be understood as a form of contemporary political crises to be governed and regulated by the law. Quite the opposite, the ontology of sovereign exception is destined to reproduce the exception to the point it becomes regular.

Keywords

• Agamben
• Schmitt
• politik ontoloji
• egemen
• istisna

ON AGAMBEN’S SOVEREIGN EXCEPTION: THE POLITICAL ONTOLOGY OF SOVEREIGNTY

Abstract

ON AGAMBEN’S SOVEREIGN EXCEPTION: THE POLITICAL ONTOLOGY OF SOVEREIGNTY Özlem ÜNLÜ ABSTRACT On Agamben’s account of the exception, the question of what it is to be exceptional can only be clarified by going back to the history of political philosophy. For Agamben, one of the most important figures in that history is Carl Schmitt whose definition of the sovereign gives occasion to the paradoxical emergence of sovereignty. Schmitt’s sovereign is located either inside or outside of the legal order. Agamben proposes the neither/nor, instead of the either/or, to explain the relation of sovereign to naked live through the exception at the ontological level by demonstrating that Schmitt’s sovereign is indeed located inside or outside of the legal order at once. In this study, I examine how Agamben’s proposed ontological logic of the sovereign exception inserts inside and outside of the law into a functional paradigmatic totality. From the perspective of Agamben’s new political ontology, all legal and political theories, as well as regimes, based on the presupposed duality of inside and outside of the law, whether they are liberal democracies or authoritarian, will inevitably find themselves in the same vicious circle of inside/outside. Thus, emergency situations ought not to be understood as a form of contemporary political crises to be governed and regulated by the law. Quite the opposite, the ontology of sovereign exception is destined to reproduce the exception to the point it becomes regular. Anahtar Sözcükler: Agamben, Schmitt, political ontology, sovereign, exception AGAMBEN’İN EGEMEN İSTİSNASI ÜZERİNE: EGEMENLİĞİN POLİTİK ONTOLOJİSİ ÖZ Agamben’in istisna durumu açıklamasında, istisnai olmanın ne olduğu ancak politik felsefe tarihine geri dönülerek açıklığa kavuşturulabilir. Agamben için bu tarihin en önemli figürlerinden biri olan Carl Schmitt’in egemen tanımı, egemenliğin paradoksal bir şekilde ortaya çıkışına yol veren bir tanımdır. .Schmitt’in egemeni, yasal düzenin ya içinde ya da dışında yer alır. Agamben, Schmitt’in egemeninin gerçekten de yasal düzenin aynı anda hem içinde hem de dışında yer aldığını göstererek, egemenin çıplak hayatla ilişkisini ontolojik düzeyde istisna yoluyla açıklamak için ya/ya da yerine ne/ne de’yi önerir. Bu çalışmada, Agamben’in egemen istisnasının önerdiği ontolojik mantığının, hukukun içini ve dışını işlevsel paradigmatik bir bütünlüğe nasıl yerleştirdiğini inceliyorum. Agamben’in yeni politik ontolojisinin perspektifinden bakıldığında, hukukun içini ve dışını varsayılan ikiliğine dayanan tüm yasal ve politik teoriler ve rejimler ister liberal demokrasi ister otoriter rejimler olsun, kaçınılmaz olarak kendilerini aynı iç/dış kısır döngüsünde bulacaklardır. Bu nedenle, acil durumlar hukuk tarafından yönetilecek ve düzenlenecek bir tür çağdaş politik kriz olarak anlaşılmamalıdır. Tersine, egemen istisnanın ontolojisi, istisnayı düzenli hale gelene kadar yeniden üretmeye mahkûmdur. Keywords: Agamben, Schmitt, politik ontoloji, egemen, istisna

Keywords

• Agamben
• Schmitt
• political ontology
• exception
• sovereign

References

1. Agamben, Giorgio. Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Translated by Daniel Heller-Roazen. Stanford University Press, 1998.
2. —. State of Exception. Translated by Kevin Attell. University of Chicago Press, 2005.
3. Dyzenhaus, David. The Constitution of Law: Legality in a Time of Emergency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
4. —. “The Concept of the Rule-of-Law State in Carl Schmitt’s Verfassungslehre.” In The Oxford Handbook of Carl Schmitt. Ed. J. Meierhenrich and O. Simons. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
5. Eryiğit, Abdullah. Yasa-Üstü İnsan: Platon’dan Agamben’e Yasa ve Hukuk İkileminde İnsan, Runik Kitap, 2021.
6. Gulli, Bruno. “The Ontology and Politics of Exception: Reflecitons on the Work of Giorgio Agamben.” In Agamben and Law. Ed. T. Zartaloudis. Routledge, 2016: 141-167.
7. Kardeş, M. Ertan. Schmitt’le Birlikte Schmitt’e Karşı: Politik Felsefe Açısından Carl Schmitt ve Düşüncesi. İletişim, 2015.
8. Küçükler, Suat Kutay. Carl Schmitt’in Hukuk Düşüncesinde Demokrasi ve Diktatörlük Tartışması. On iki Levha Yayıncılık, 2023.

9. Memişoğlu, Enis Emre. “Giorgio Agamben ve Kutsallığın Ekonomi Politiği”. FLSF Felsefe ve Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, no. 35 (Spring 2023): 25-48.
10. Rousseau, J. J. “Considerations on the Government of Poland.” In The Social Contract and Other Later Political Writings. Ed. and Trans. by Victor Gourevitch. Cambridge University Press, 1997.
11. —. “Of the Social Contract.” In The Social Contract and Other Later Political Writings. Ed. and Trans. by Victor Gourevitch. Cambridge University Press, 1997.
12. Schmitt, Carl. Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty. Translated by George Schwab. The University of Chicago Press, 2005.
13. —. “The Age of Neutralizations and Depolitizations” in The Concept of Political. Translated by George Schwab. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
14. —. The Concept of The Political. Translated by George Schwab. Chicago University Press, 2007.
15. —. Dictatorship: From the Origin of the Modern Concept of Sovereignty to the Proletarian Class Struggle. Translated by M. Hoelzl and G. Ward. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014.
16. Ulaş Aksoy, Mete. “Kutsal İnsan: Giorgio Agamben’in Egemenlik Anlatısında Kurbansal Durum”. FLSF Felsefe ve Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, no. 22 (September 2016): 16-40.
17. WEBSITE REFERENCES
18. U.S Congress. Authorization for Use of Military Force. Public Law 107-40. U.S. Statutes at Large 115(2001): 224. Accessed May 15, 2025. https://www.congress.gov/107/plaws/publ40/PLAW-107publ40.pdf