Giorgio Agamben quotes
Antoine Meillet also noted that imperatives in European languages are typically the morphological root of the verb, and hypothesised that the imperative was the primitive form of a verb: "walk!” precedes "to walk” or "he walks”. This opens up the possibility of an alternative ontology, or pre-ontology, based on commandment rather than assertion, on "be!” rather than "is”. While philosophical or scientific statements would fall under the ordinary "is”-based ontology, fields like law, religion or magic would operate in the imperative mode: "let there be...”.
Giorgio Agamben
If human beings were or had to be this or that substance, this or that destiny, no ethical experience would be possible... This does not mean, however, that humans are not, and do not have to be, something, that they are simply consigned to nothingness and therefore can freely decide whether to be or not to be, to adopt or not to adopt this or that destiny (nihilism and decisionism coincide at this point). There is in effect something that humans are and have to be, but this is not an essence nor properly a thing: It is the simple fact of one's own existence as possibility or potentiality.
Giorgio Agamben
