On poverty as richness in Saint Augustine, Martin Heidegger and Giorgio Agamben

Abstract

There are various approaches regarding poverty in which a key index of philosophy repeatedly shines: the call to live a just and happy life, inseparable from its form, and at the same time, radically open to being expropriated by the inappropriable. The confession and gift of the Holy Spirit in Saint Augustine, the essential link of Western peoples with the Free-liberating, thus being open to their historical and ontological destiny in Martin Heidegger, the neutral, neither animal nor human, in a connection with the inappropriable in Giorgio Agamben. In each of these cases, the tradition of metaphysics that culminated in nihilism, the will to power, and the logic of value is called into question. Revisiting the issue of poverty is relevant not only to contemplate an avenue for moving beyond metaphysics and biopolitics but also to explore the extent to which Christianity transcends the history of metaphysics.