On Impotence
Life in an Age of Frenetic Paralysis
Published on 8. May 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
160 pages
978-1-80309-645-2 (ISBN)
Description
An incisive and urgent book that explores the hidden roots of our contemporary powerlessness.
Contemporary life is marked by a paradoxical form of impotence. Whether in love, labor, or political struggle, we often find ourselves locked in a state of frenetic paralysis-unable to act as we wish or to endure what confronts us. This impotence is not born of lack, but of excess: an abundance of skills, capacities, and opportunities that, instead of taking form as coherent actions or speech, stagnate and turn in on themselves. In this thought-provoking meditation, philosopher Paolo Virno examines this strange impotence through the lens of classical thought, drawing especially on Aristotle and Marx.
To overcome this troubling state, Virno calls for a collective search for a shared spiritual and practical exercise aimed at reclaiming agency. He argues that only by learning to renounce renunciation can we cultivate deliberate words and timely decisions.
Contemporary life is marked by a paradoxical form of impotence. Whether in love, labor, or political struggle, we often find ourselves locked in a state of frenetic paralysis-unable to act as we wish or to endure what confronts us. This impotence is not born of lack, but of excess: an abundance of skills, capacities, and opportunities that, instead of taking form as coherent actions or speech, stagnate and turn in on themselves. In this thought-provoking meditation, philosopher Paolo Virno examines this strange impotence through the lens of classical thought, drawing especially on Aristotle and Marx.
To overcome this troubling state, Virno calls for a collective search for a shared spiritual and practical exercise aimed at reclaiming agency. He argues that only by learning to renounce renunciation can we cultivate deliberate words and timely decisions.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Greenford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
172 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80309-645-2 (9781803096452)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Paolo Virno is an Italian philosopher, semiologist, and activist. A prominent figure in the tradition of Italian workerist thought, he teaches at the University of Rome and is the author of An Essay on Negation, The Idea of World, and numerous other works. Arianna Bove is an independent philosophy researcher and translator, and cofounder of generation-online.org. She has translated works by Althusser, Foucault, Negri, Bifo, and Virno, among others.
Content
1. The Trouble with Abundance
1.1 A Surplus of Potential
1.2 Aristotle vs the School of Megara
1.3 To have 'dynamis'
1.4 Misunderstandings
1.5 Genealogy of impotence
2. The Art of Suffering
2.1 How to Weather the Winds of Fate
2.2 The Actions of Sufferers
2.3 Welcoming, Withdrawing, Adhering, Resisting
2.4 The Collapse of Reception
2.5 A menage a trois
3. Omissions and Renunciations
3.1 Negative Actions
3.2. Proclaiming a State of Impotence
3.3 The Faculty to Suspend
3.4 On Limit
3.5 Omitting Omissions, Renouncing Renunciations
3.6 Political-theological Note
4. Two Kinds of Habit
4.1 Modes of Possession
4.2 The ever-present in-between
4.3 Managing or Using Potential
4.4 Civil War
5. An Incumbent Infinity
5.1. Archaic Representations
5.2. The Misadventures of Use Grappling with Boundlessness
5.3 The Primacy of Relation
5.4. Action comes last
5.5. From Task to Performance
5.6. Physiognomic Gloss
6. Institutions
6.1 Provisional Moral (of the Story)
6.2 The Good Government of Infinity
6.3 The Ambivalence of the Institution: an Exercise of Use and a Usable Thing
6.4 Techniques, Experiments, Ideas
6.5 The Subversion of Hexis-management
6.6 On the Institutional Meaning of Renunciation
6.7 Endgame
1.1 A Surplus of Potential
1.2 Aristotle vs the School of Megara
1.3 To have 'dynamis'
1.4 Misunderstandings
1.5 Genealogy of impotence
2. The Art of Suffering
2.1 How to Weather the Winds of Fate
2.2 The Actions of Sufferers
2.3 Welcoming, Withdrawing, Adhering, Resisting
2.4 The Collapse of Reception
2.5 A menage a trois
3. Omissions and Renunciations
3.1 Negative Actions
3.2. Proclaiming a State of Impotence
3.3 The Faculty to Suspend
3.4 On Limit
3.5 Omitting Omissions, Renouncing Renunciations
3.6 Political-theological Note
4. Two Kinds of Habit
4.1 Modes of Possession
4.2 The ever-present in-between
4.3 Managing or Using Potential
4.4 Civil War
5. An Incumbent Infinity
5.1. Archaic Representations
5.2. The Misadventures of Use Grappling with Boundlessness
5.3 The Primacy of Relation
5.4. Action comes last
5.5. From Task to Performance
5.6. Physiognomic Gloss
6. Institutions
6.1 Provisional Moral (of the Story)
6.2 The Good Government of Infinity
6.3 The Ambivalence of the Institution: an Exercise of Use and a Usable Thing
6.4 Techniques, Experiments, Ideas
6.5 The Subversion of Hexis-management
6.6 On the Institutional Meaning of Renunciation
6.7 Endgame