There are many similarities between the thinker Giorgio Agamben and the media theorist Vilém Flusser. Not only do they both critically reflect on the problem of evil in the present age, but they also respond to it with the highly revealing concepts of anarchē and groundlessness, respectively. But this further reveals the fundamental differences between the two.

Agamben’s concept of anarchē brings about a shift from negation to affirmation, from the model of archaeological topology to positive action, while his summative concept of “form-of-life” is a highly Deleuzian term. On the contrary, Flusser's central concept of groundlessness, based on a Camusian sense of the absurd refers to the rootless, unjustified, and meaningless abyss of the world, thus providing a philosophical explanation of extreme evil. Moreover, it allows for a corresponding remedy to the coflict between freedom and control in the age of technical images. Both concepts converge when the topic of gesture comes into discussion. For Flusser, gesture is the micro-decision of the quantum leap, while for Agamben, gesture ultimately reveals the way to salvation in the messianic moment.

About the Speaker: Jiang Yuhui

Jiang Yuhui, DEA of Ecole Normale de Paris, Ph. D of Fudan University, Professor of the Department of Philosophy of East China Normal University, Shanghai Shuguang Scholar. He is now the director of the western philosophy section. His main research area covers contemporary French philosophy, film philosophy and media study. He’s published a few books, such as Study on Deleuze’s Body Aesthetics, and Truth and Painting: Merleau-Ponty and Chinese Landscape Paintings. He’s also translated Deleuze’s two books into Chinese, that is, Mille Plateaux and Proust et les signes.