First Philosophy Last Philosophy: Western Knowledge Between Metaphysics and the Sciences

What is at stake in that form of inquiry which the Western philosophical tradition has called first philosophy or metaphysics? Is this an abstract, now outmoded branch of philosophy, or does it address a problem that is still of great interest - namely, the unity of Western knowledge?

In fact, metaphysics is 'first' only in relation to the other two sciences that Aristotle called theoretical: physics and mathematics. It is the strategic sense of this 'primacy' that needs to be examined because what is at issue here is nothing less than the relationship of domination or subservience, conflict or harmony, between philosophy and science. The hypothesis of this book is that philosophy's attempt to use metaphysics as a way of securing its primacy among the sciences has resulted instead in its subservience: philosophy, once handmaiden to theology (ancilla theologiae), has now become more or less consciously handmaiden to the sciences (ancilla scientiarum). So it is all the more urgent to explore the nature and limits of this primacy and subservience, as this book does through an archaeological investigation of metaphysics.

This important re-reading of the Western philosophical tradition by a leading thinker will be of interest to students and scholars in philosophy, critical theory and the humanities more generally, and to anyone interested in contemporary philosophy and European thought.

在西方哲學傳統中所謂的第一哲學或形上學的探究中，有什麼是值得關注的？這是一個抽象的、現在已經過時的哲學分支，還是它探討的問題仍然具有重要性 - 即西方知識的統一性？

事實上，形上學只是相對於亞里士多德所稱的理論科學中的另外兩個科學（物理學和數學）而言的“第一”。需要檢視的是這種“首要性”的戰略意義，因為這裡所關注的問題不僅僅是哲學與科學之間的主導或從屬、衝突或和諧的關係。本書的假設是，哲學試圖通過使用形上學來確保其在科學中的首要地位，結果卻使其變得從屬：哲學曾經是神學的侍女（ancilla theologiae），現在則或多或少地成為科學的侍女（ancilla scientiarum）。因此，更加迫切地需要探索這種首要地位和從屬性的本質和限制，正如本書通過對形上學的考古學研究所做的。

這位領先思想家對西方哲學傳統的重要重新閱讀將對哲學、批判理論以及人文學科的學生和學者，以及對當代哲學和歐洲思想感興趣的任何人都具有興趣。

Giorgio Agamben is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Venice.

Giorgio Agamben是威尼斯大學的哲學教授。