Humanidade inalcançável: notas sobre A Voz Humana de Giorgio Agamben

The article proposes a reading of Giorgio Agamben’s La voce umana (The human voice, 2023) in the context of the development of his philosophy of language, and focuses in particular on the consequences of his theory of the “voice” for his definition of human nature. Agamben establishes an inextricable link between human voice and human nature, but his theory of the voice as what must be (inclusively) excluded in order for signifying speech (logos) to emerge also condemns the definition of human nature to an infinite deferral. Since a “true” human voice will emerge only when the division between phonè and logos is overcome, so only this overcoming will allow for a “authentic” definition of human nature. Particular attention is paid to the fact that this theory frames the human voice, and hence human beings, as an exception to an allegedly uniform animality, and thus upholds – perhaps unwillingly – a form of human exceptionalism.