In The Open: Man and Animal, Giorgio Agamben engages in a profound philosophical dialogue with the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke and the thought of Martin Heidegger. 
Drawing on theories of the human-animal relation, Agamben explores the "practical and political mystery" behind the division between human and animal life. 
Delving into the concept of life from a unique angle, he examines the threshold where the human is constituted, exposing the workings of the "anthropological machine"—the mechanism that continually redefines the boundary between man and animal.