When the word becomes flesh
Subtitle: language and human nature
By: Paolo Virno ; translated by Giuseppina Mecchia
Contributors: Mecchia, Giuseppina, 1962- translator
Series: Semiotext(e) foreign agents series; Semiotext(e) foreign agents series
Publisher: Semiotext(e)
Published: 2015
Place of publication: South Pasadena, CA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 263
ISBN-13: 9781584350941
Subjects: Språkpsykologi; Teori, filosofi; Philosophy; Språk; Language and languages
Work titles: Quando il verbo si fa carne
Notes: Translation of: Quando il verbo si fa carne.

"Originally published in Italian in 2002, 'When the word becomes flesh' provides a compelling contribution to the understanding of language and its relation to human nature and social relationships. Adopting Aristotle's definition of the human being as a linguistic and political animal, Paolo Virno frames the act of speech as a foundational philosophical issue - an act that in its purely performative essence ultimately determines our ability to pass from the state of possibility to one of actuality: that is, from the power to act to action itself."--Page 4 of cover.

Includes bibliographical references.

Translated from the Italian.
Table of contents: title: Part one: the act of speaking; title: The speaker as performing artist; title: The absolute performative; title: The repetition of anthropogenesis; title: Part two: toward a critic of interiority; title: Second-degree sensualism: a physiognomic project; title: In praise of reification; title: Part three: from the beginning and right now; title: Natural history; title: The multitude and the principle of individuation; title: Appendix: Wittgenstein and the question of atheism.