Giorgio Agamben is best known for his /Homo sacer /(Italian: 1995), in 
which he formulates a fundamental critique of Western politics. Less 
known, however, is that this critique relies on the reflections on 
language that Agamben had developed in his earlier works, most notably 
/Infancy and History /(Italian: 1979), /Language and Death /(Italian: 
1982) and /Potentialities /(most essays written between 1978-1990). 
Before focusing directly on politics, Agamben concerned himself with the 
way in which humans ‘have’ language. If man is the /zoon logon echon/, 
then what is the meaning of the ‘echon’, Agamben asks. In this lecture I 
will focus on Agamben’s notion of infancy as a response to this 
question, and the way in which this notion anticipates Agamben’s later 
works on politics and ethics

Ype de Boer is a PhD-candidate in philosophy on the VU, studying the 
work of contemporary Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben. He has 
translated Agamben’s /Profanazioni/, co-translated Badiou’s /Eloge de 
l’amour /and written a readers-guide to Oswald Spenglers /De ondergang 
van het Avondland/. Recently his philosophical interpretation of the 
fiction of Japanese author Haruki Murakami, titled /Murakami en het 
gespleten leven/, was published.