Multitude between Innovation and Negation (Semiotext(e) / Foreign Agents)

"Multitude between Innovation and Negation offers three essays that take the reader on a journey through the political philosophy of language. Virno unravels the infinite potential and wonders of everyday linguistic praxis and ambiguity. Wit, he argues, is a public performance, and its modus operandi characterizes human action in a state of emergency; it is a reaction, an articulate response, and a possible solution to a state of crisis. Virno challenges the distinction between the state of nature and civil society and argues for a political institution that resembles language in its ability to be at once nature and history."--book jacket.