The Signature of All Things: Agamben’s Philosophical Archaeology

Agamben’s methodological mix of philosophy and philology has inspired, but for some it is also the source of deep anxiety. With the publication of The Signature of All Things, this article suggests, we finally have an unequivocal statement as to the true nature of the Agamben method. The paper systematically details the component parts of what Agamben calls philosophical archaeology: the controversy over the method, the use of paradigms, and the development of a theory of signatures. The paper then ends with a delineation of philosophical archaeology itself with its combination of moments of arising of signatures, distribution through time and space via paradigms and their messianic suspension in a moment of indifference.