Member-only story
THE TWO FACES OF POWER — Giorgio Agamben
— — — — — — — — — Translation of the essays, written by Giorgio Agamben, published on Quodlibet on March 8, 13, 15 and 17, 2023.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The two faces of power 1
“Any investigation of politics is vitiated by a preliminary terminological ambiguity, which condemns to misunderstanding those who undertake it. Let it be the passage in the third book of the Politics in which Aristotle, when “investigating the polytheiai, to determine their number and qualities,” peremptorily states, “since polytheia and polytheuma mean the same thing and polytheuma is the supreme power of cities (to kyrion ton poleon ), it is necessary that the supreme power should be the one or the few or the many” (1279 at 25–26). Current translations read, “since constitution and government mean the same thing and government is the sovereign power of cities….” Whether this translation is more or less correct, in any case in it emerges to light what might be called the amphiboly of perhaps the fundamental concept of our political tradition, which presents itself now as “constitution” — now as “government.” In a kind of dizzying contraction, the two concepts are identified and at the same time distinct, and it is precisely this equivocality that defines kyrion , sovereignty, according to Aristotle…
