Derrida: Introductions and Overviews

The reflection elaborated in these pages, fleeing all submission to the now abused rhetoric of the prevailing economism, traces in the works of René Girard - the most serious pretender to the legacy of the masters of suspicion - and Jacques Derrida - the last great philosopher of the twentieth century - the constituent elements of a critical paradigm with which to interpret the present time. The volume investigates the multiple correspondences between the different legacies of deconstruction and the most (...) recent developments of mimetic theory through the articulated reconstruction of the reflections, still little known in Italy, of some of the most brilliant contemporary exponents of those traditions. Formulating the features of an ontology of actuality hinged on the notions of mimesis and trace, the author proposes a philosophical diagnosis that recognizes in our time an age in the grip of panic. (shrink)

One of the most significant contemporary thinkers in continental philosophy, Jacques Derrida’s work continues to attract heated commentary among philosophers, literary critics, social and cultural theorists, architects and artists. This major new work by world renowned Derrida scholar and translator, Geoffrey Bennington, presents incisive new readings of both Derrida and interpretations of his work. Part one sets out Derrida’s work as a whole and examines its relevance to, and ‘interruption’ of, the traditional domains of ethics, politics and literature. The second (...) part of the book presents compelling insights into some important motifs in Derrida’s work, such as death, friendship, psychoanalysis, time and endings. The final section introduces trenchant appraisals of other influential accounts of Derrida’s work. This influential and original contribution to the literature on Derrida is marked by a commitment to clarity and accuracy, but also by a refusal to simplify Derrida’s often difficult thought. (shrink)

This extraordinary book offers a clear and compelling biography of Jacques Derrida along with one of Derrida's strangest and most unexpected texts. Geoffrey Bennington's account of Derrida leads the reader through the philosopher's familiar yet widely misunderstood work on language and writing to the less familiar themes of signature, sexual difference, law, and affirmation. In an unusual and unprecedented "dialogue," Derrida responds to Bennington's text by interweaving Bennington's text with surprising and disruptive "periphrases." Truly original, this dual and dueling text (...) opens new dimensions in Derrida's thought and work. "Bennington is a shrewd and well-informed commentator whose book should do something to convince the skeptics... that Jacques Derrida's work merits serious attention."—Christopher Norris, _New Statesman & Society_ "Geoffrey Bennington and Jacques Derrida have presented a fascinating example of what might be called post-structuralist autobiography."—Laurie Volpe, _French Review_ "Bennington's account of what Derrida is up to is better in almost all respects—more intelligent, more plausible, more readable, and less pretentious—than any other I have read."—Richard Rorty, _Contemporary Literature_. (shrink)

Few thinkers of the latter half of the twentieth century have so profoundly and radically transformed our understanding of writing and literature as Jacques Derrida. Derridian deconstruction remains one of the most powerful intellectual movements of the present century, and Derrida's own innovative writings on literature and philosophy are crucially relevant for any understanding of the future of literature and literary criticism today. Derrida's own manner of writing is complex and challenging and has often been misrepresented or misunderstood. In this (...) book, Leslie Hill provides an accessible introduction to Derrida's writings on literature which presupposes no prior knowledge of Derrida's work. He explores in detail Derrida's relationship to literary theory and criticism, and offers close readings of some of Derrida's best known essays. This introduction will help those coming to Derrida's work for the first time, and suggests further directions to take in studying this hugely influential thinker. (shrink)

This critical survey of issues in European philosophy offers detailed accounts of crucial texts by important thinkers. Sedgwick draws key ideas from these sources, analyzing the various relationships between them and linking them to central themes in philosophical enquiry, such as the nature of subjectivity, reason and experience, anti-humanism, and the nature of language.Areas explored include epistemology, metaphysics and ontology, ethics and politics. Aspects of the work of a broad range of thinkers is considered in detail, including Descartes, Locke, Hume, (...) Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Adorno and Horkheimer, Heidegger, Deleuze and Guatarri, Levinas, Derrida, Althusser, Foucault and Lyotard. This intriguing new work presents the complex ideas of European philosophy in a straightforward manner, and will be of interest to both introductory and advanced-level readers. (shrink)

Review of Gaston and Machlachlan's 2011 book "Reading Derrida's Of Grammatology".

This book seeks to plot or narrate the life of Derrida around the lives of others.

In this entertaining and provocative introduction, Royle offers lucid explanations of various key ideas, including deconstruction, undecidability, iterability, differance, aporia, the pharmakon, the supplement, a new enlightenment, and the democracy to come. He also gives attention, however, to a range of less obvious key ideas of Derrida, such as earthquakes, animals and animality, ghosts, monstrosity, the poematic, drugs, gifts, secrets, war, and mourning. Derrida is seen as an extraordinarily inventive thinker, as well as a brilliantly imaginative and often very funny (...) writer. Other critical introductions tend to highlight the specifically philosophical nature and genealogy of his work. Royle's book proceeds in a new and different way, in particular by focusing on the crucial but strange place of literature in Derrida's writings. He thus provides an appreciation and understanding based on detailed reference to Derrida's texts, interwoven with close readings of such writers as Shakespeare, Coleridge, P.B. Shelley, Poe, Emily Brontë, Franz Kafka and Elizabeth Bowen. In doing so, he explores Derrida's consistent view that deconstruction is "a coming-to-terms with literature". He emphasizes the ways in which "literature", for Derrida, is indissociably bound up with other concerns, such as philosophy and psychoanalysis, politics and ethics, responsibility and justice, law and democracy. (shrink)

The essays cover language, metaphysics, the subject, politics, ethics, the decision, translation, religion, psychoanalysis, literature, art, and Derrida's ...

This article attempts to introduce some of the central dimensions of Jacques Derrida's thought, with attention given to both early and late texts in his oeuvre.

Introduction -- The pre-socratic philosophers -- Sixth and fifth centuries B.C.E. -- Thales -- Anaximander -- Anaximenes -- Pythagoras -- Heraclitus -- Parmenides -- Zeno -- Empedocles -- Anaxagoras -- Leucippus and Democritus -- The Athenian period -- Fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. -- The Sophists -- Protagoras -- Gorgias -- Thrasymachus -- Callicles and Critias -- Socrates -- Plato -- Aristotle -- The Hellenistic and Roman periods -- Fourth century B.C.E. through fourth century C.E. -- Epicureanism -- Stoicism -- (...) Neoplatonism -- Medieval and Renaissance philosophy -- Fifth through fifteenth centuries -- Saint Augustine -- The encyclopediasts -- John Scotus Eriugena -- Saint Anselm -- Muslim and Jewish philosophies -- Averroës -- Maimonides -- The problem of faith and reason -- The problem of the universals -- Saint Thomas Aquinas -- William of Ockham -- Renaissance philosophers -- Continental rationalism and British empiricism -- The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries -- Descartes -- Hobbes -- Spinoza -- Leibniz -- Locke -- Berkeley -- Hume -- Kant -- Post-kantian British and continental philosophy -- The nineteenth century -- Hegel -- Schopenhauer -- Kierkegaard -- Marx -- Nietzsche -- Utilitarianism -- Bentham -- Frege -- Pragmatism, the analytic tradition, and the phenomenological tradition and its aftermath -- The twentieth century -- Pragmatism -- James -- Dewey -- The analytic tradition -- Moore -- Russell -- Logical positivism -- Wittgenstein -- Quine -- The phenomenological tradition and its aftermath -- Husserl -- Heidegger -- Sartre -- Structuralism and poststructuralism -- Saussure -- Lévi-Strauss -- Lacan -- Derrida -- Irigaray. (shrink)

This is Volume 3 of the most comprehensive anthology of writings in Western philosophy in print. It assembles the classic essays of Western philosophy of the twentieth century, from logical Positivism, American Pragmatism, and Ordinary Language Philosophy to Continental Philosophy.

If you are like most people, you’re not sure what Postmodernism is. And if this were like most books on the subject, it probably wouldn’t tell you. Besides what a few grumpy critics claim, Postmodernism is not a bunch of meaningless intellectual mind games. On the contrary, it is a reaction to the most profound spiritual and philosophical crises of our time–the failure of the Enlightenment. Jim Powell takes the position that Postmodernism is a series of “maps” that help people (...) find their way through a changing world. Postmodernism For Beginners features the thoughts of Foucault on power and knowledge, Jameson on mapping the postmodern, Baudrillard on the media, Harvey on time-space compression, Derrida on deconstruction and Deleuze and Guattari on rhizomes. The book also discusses postmodern artifacts such as Madonna, cyberpunk sci-fi, Buddhist ecology and teledildonics. (shrink)

Derrida is one of those annoying geniuses you can take a class on, read half-a-dozen books by and still have no idea what he’s talking about. Derrida’s ‘writing’ is definitely confusing (it’s like he’s pulling the rug out from under the rug that he pulled out from under philosophy). But beneath the confusion, like the heartbeat of a bird in your hand, you can feel Derrida’s electric genius. It draws you to it; you want to understand it…but it’s so confusing. (...) Jim Powell’s Derrida For Beginners is the clearest explanation of Derrida and deconstruction presently available in our solar system. Powell guides us through blindingly obscure texts like Grammatology (Derrida’s deconstruction of Saussure, Le;vi Strauss, Roussseau), “Diffe;rance” (his essay on language and life), Dissemination (his dismantling of Plato, his rap on Mallarme;), along with his other masterpieces. (shrink)

“In its less dramatic versions,” writes author Dan Palmer, “structuralism is just a method of studying language, society, and the works of artists and novelists. But in its most exuberant form, it is a philosophy, an overall worldview that provides an account of reality and knowledge.” Poststructuralism is a loosely knit intellectual movement, comprised mainly of ex-structuralists who either became dissatisfied with the theory or felt they could improve it. Structuralism and Poststructuralism For Beginners is an illustrated tour through the (...) mysterious landscape of these two theories. The book’s starting point is the linguistic theory of Ferdinand de Saussure. The book moves on to the anthropologist and literary critic Claude Levi-Strauss; the semiologist and literary critic Roland Barthes; the Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser; the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan; the deconstructionist Jacques Derrida. The book concludes by examining the postmodern obsession with language and with the radical claim of the disappearance of the individual–obsessions that unite the work of all of these theorists. (shrink)

Discusses Derrida's writings on Plato, Kant, Hegel, Rousseau, Nietzsche, and Freud.

On connaît les difficultés actuelles de la philosophie française et la querelle qu'elle mène avec le structuralisme idéologique. La position de Jacques Derrida, auteur de trois publications récentes (La Voix et le Phénomène ; L'Ecriture et la Différence ; De la Grammatologie) est nouvelle et originale dans ce débat polémique de méthodes et de positions de principe. Son œuvre, déjà abondante et surtout riche en nouvelles perspectives, se présente comme un commentaire interprétatif de certains grands auteurs classiques, philosophes et écrivains (...) : Platon, Rousseau, Hegel, Husserl, Freud, Lévi-Strauss, Bataille, Artaud, Levinas e.a. Imprégné de phénoménologie essentiellement husserlienne – on trouve chez lui des analyses brillantes de certaines pages de la première Logische Untersuchung, de Ideen 1 et de l'Ursprung der Geometrie –, Derrida pose à chaque instant et à travers chaque commentaire effectif d'un grand texte, la question de la possibilité du projet philosophique. L'intuition centrale de cette œuvre est que la philosophie et la science se déroulent dans une continuité absolue à l'intérieur de l'episteme occidental ou grec ; elles s'inscrivent dans l'histoire du logos puisque le telos philosophique et scientifique est constitué par la pure logicité incarnée dans un discours, instauré par et instaurant la présence pleine et rassurante. Cela ne veut pas dire que le logos comme histoire de la rationalité, c.à.d. comme philosophie ou science, et comme histoire tout court, ne présente pas de brisure interne. Jacques Derrida est particulièrement attentif à toute faiblesse, tout manque qui se décrit dans les systèmes philosophiques, mais ne se déclare jamais par principe en par essence. C'est l'oubli de l'écriture comme ce qui résiste à la logologie qu'est la philosophie, qui suscite la méfiance et indique le chemin qui mènera vers la trace et le Dehors. La pensée logocentrique devrait être détruite et remplacée par une grammatologie ou „science de la lettre” (ou de l'écriture) qui dépasse la logologie philosophique et ses présupposés épistémiques. Cet article n'a pas d'autre but que de présenter d'une manière aussi systématique que possible, cette grammatologie comme elle se concrétise dans l'œuvre jusqu'ici fragmentaire de Derrida. Ce serait impossible et injustifiable de fixer par une approche critique une pensée qui est en pleine évolution et qui se déclare d'ailleurs elle-même stratégique et opératoire. Il s'agit donc seulement pour nous de périfraser les écrits difficiles de Jacques Derrida et de sympathiser avec une recherche qui ne propose pas seulement une nouvelle interprétation de l'histoire de la philosophie, mais en décrit en plus la clôture, tout en ouvrant la possibilité d'un discours postlogologique qui se meut dans le Dehors de l'écriture. Nous avons indiqué d'abord, toujours en suivant la méditation de Derrida lui-même, comment l'histoire de la pensée gréco-occidentale – de Platon à Husserl en passant par Hegel – a été fascinée par l'utopie de la présence. Ensuite nous décrivons cette solidarité essentielle de la pensée philosophique et scientifique en ce qui concerne le théorie du signe, du langage et de l'écriture ; le modèle linguistique, de Saussure ou de Hjelmslev à Lévi-Strauss, est phonologique, valorise donc la phonè, et se développe parallèlement à une phénoménologie où le logos récupère la présence dans la voix transparente d'une vie transcendentale. Une troisième partie indique le tournant, illustré et préfiguré entre autre par le théâtre de la cruauté d'Antonin Artaud et par le principe de souveraineté chez Georges Bataille. La critique de la représentation d'une part et la valorisation du jeu et du risque radical d'autre part mènent vers cette sphère du silence où règne l'écriture. La difficulté de conceptualisation grammatologique apparaît clairement dans la quatrième et dernière partie de notre étude, où sont développées les notions de trace, d'écriture et d'origine. Puisqu'il n'y a aucun discours qui échappe à la ruse de l'onto-logique et puisque toute question Qu'est-ce que ? présuppose une métaphysique de l'essence et de la présence, la grammatologie se déroulera sur un fond d'impossibilité. Le chemin de la trace n'est jamais articulé dans la linéarité d'un savoir positif. Si la trace est la différance, c'est que la différance est le mouvement pur qui engendre la et des différences. Dans ce sens-là, la voix aussi bien que la lettre doivent être situées à l'intérieur de leur condition de possibilité qu'est la trace ou l'archi-écriture. Cette différance est différente de et diffère l'aparaître et ce qui apparait. Elle est temporalisation (cf. le sens de „différer”) mais d'un temps autre que métaphysique et insaisissable pour toute phénoménologie transcendentale. Temporalisation qui est espacement ou instauration de l'intervalle et de la forme. La trace qui comme différance est différente et rend possible la présence-absence, est le pur temps-espace du jeu ; elle est l'archi-phénomène indicible, innommable et irréductible ou le Dehors. La nouveauté puissante de Derrida consiste maintenant dans l'argumentation en faveur d'une identification de la trace et de l'écriture. C'est l'analyse de l'Essai sur l'origine des langues de J. J. Rousseau qui lui donne l'occasion de décrire la structure complexe de la supplémentarité en rapport avec l'écriture et sa relation avec la parole. Ici encore Derrida découvre le malaise essentiel à l'intérieur de la doctrine rousseauiste : le supplément qu'est l'écriture, n'est pas épuisé par son caractère additif. La supplémentarité a la double fonction d'addition et d'achèvement (et donc de condition de possibilité) ; le logocentrisme dissimule, par définition, cette deuxième fonction, ce qui mène à la conception dépréciative et dualisante de la représentation et du signe. L'écriture, déterminée comme supplément, est le double comme origine de la parole ; elle sillonne la présence et l'altère. Le concept le plus adéquat et donc le plus dangereux puisque le plus stratégique, de la visée grammatologique est celui de supplément d'origine. Si Derrida décrit l'écriture comme le supplément d'origine, c'est que l'écriture est le temps-espace qui est origine étant supplément et à la fois supplément à l'origine ou origine de l'origine. L'archi-phénomène scriptural nous apprend donc que cette origine de l'origine est son inorigine ce qui revient à dire que la différance ne diffère en rien de la différence. Cette structure fondamentale ne se dit pas puisque le mouvement d'altération ne réalise rien, étant structure du Dehors (de la présence), mais s'inscrit : cette inscription ou écriture, empreinte de l'inorigine, est la norme „originelle” de la vie, de la parole et du monde. Ce schéma de certains concepts partout au travail dans le texte de Jacques Derrida, ne laisse rien apparaître ni de sa force de pensée ni de la richesse de nuances inattendues. Ce qui étonne et fascine le plus chez notre auteur, est cette obstination soutenue qui met en question et en accusation l'oubli essentiel de l'écriture dans la pensée logologique de la philosophie et dans l'histoire de l'episteme occidental en général. D'autre part, la „pensée” de Derrida, n'ayant pas de centre, n'étant pas une „œuvre” proprement dite puisqu'elle ne se réalise jamais dans toute sa positivité, fuit la tentative de comparaison ; situer cette „pensée” dans ses dépendances et interdépendances serait d'ailleurs vain et injuste. La position de Derrida à l'égard de Levinas et de Heidegger est toujours et pour les mêmes raisons ambiguë et hésitante. Si la pensée de la trace chez Levinas et le concept d'altérité ont sûrement entraîné Derrida, il n'en reste pour autant ni désarmé ni sans critique pour cet auteur. L'attitude de Derrida à l'égard de Heidegger est encore infiniment plus complexe : toute la question est de savoir si Heidegger lui-même se situe à l'intérieur de cette onto-théologie qu'il a si admirablement circonscrite. La pensée de la Differenz chez Heidegger se laisse toujours interpréter de deux façons différentes ; l'allure heideggerienne de Jacques Derrida est radicalisante et postphénoménologique et sa destruction mène à une théorie de l'écriture où la différance est posée comme Durchstreichung de l'Etre : la grammatologie pense la différance comme différance (Differenz als Differenz). Si nous tâchons de comprendre l'éclat captivant de cette grammatologie – nouveauté éclatante, très solidaire de la modernité et d'un avenir qui perce sur les confins de notre temps – il faut mettre en lumière cette conclusion fondamentale : la grammatologie, stratégique par définition, se développant autour de l'archi-phénomène qu'est l'écriture, constitue une menace intérieure de toute logologie phonologiste, donc de toute philosophie. Cette „pensée de l'écriture” inaugure la catastrophe salutaire qui valorise radicalement et globalement le signifiant comme origine inoriginelle de la signification, de la parole, de la rationalité, du monde et de la vie. C'est la structure de supplémentarité dans toute sa complexité qui touche au noyau et à l'entrelacement où se rejoignent la possibilité et l'impossibilité : la pensée de l'origine comme inorigine – pensée impossible et pourtant nécessaire – détruit le recours à l'essence et à la présence et instaure le règne de la lettre et le temps-espace grammatologique. (shrink)

Introduction to Phenomenology is an outstanding and comprehensive guide to an important but often little-understood movement in European philosophy. Dermot Moran lucidly examines the contributions of phenomenology's nine seminal thinkers: Brentano, Husserl, Heidegger, Gadamer, Arendt, Levinas, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and Derrida. Written in a clear and engaging style, this volume charts the course of the movement from its origins in Husserl to its transformation by Derrida. It describes the thought of Heidegger and Sartre, phenomenology's most famous thinkers, and introduces and assesses (...) the distinctive use of phenomenology by some of its lesser-known exponents, such as Levinas, Arendt and Gadamer. Throughout, the enormous influence of phenomenology on the course of twentieth-century philosophy is thoroughly explored. Clearly explaining technical terms and avoiding jargon, Introduction to Phenomenology is an indispensable introduction to the history and substance of this vital current in intellectual thought. (shrink)

Jacques Derrida was born in Algeria in 1930. His early work, Plato's Pharmacy, published in three sections in the journal Tel Quel, was to establish a style and a set of concerns. More orthodox philosophical papers, such as Differance, establish the intellectual grounds for the course which he now pursues. His links with French institutional life have been as innovative as his thought: he was a founder of the International College of Philosophy in Paris, and is presently attached to the (...) Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Boulevard Raspail, Paris. He is a critic of institutions, yet demands the standards and continuity which flow from them. Derrida looks towards German philosophy more than any other, and clues to his programme may be found in Heidegger, Hegel and Husserl. The major concern of his work is meaning and its relation to text: semiotics is particularly associated with his name, and this involves a theory of symbols, signs and meaning. His work has also been associated with the critique of the idea of the author. (shrink)

Ideal for courses in modern philosophy or modern and contemporary philosophy, The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy, Volume II: Descartes through Derrida and Quine covers the same material as the second half (chapters 12-25) of author Norman Melchert's longer volume, The Great Conversation. Tracing the exchange of ideas among history's key philosophers, the book demonstrates that while constructing an argument or making a claim, one philosopher almost always has others in mind. It addresses the fundamental questions of human (...) life: Who are we? What can we know? How should we live? and What sort of reality do we inhabit? -/- The sixth edition retains the distinctive feature of previous editions: author Norman Melchert provides a generous selection of excerpts from major philosophical works and makes them more easily understandable to students with his lucid and engaging explanations. Ranging from Descartes to Derrida and Quine, the selections are organized historically and include a translation of Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy (the complete work). The author's commentary offers a rich intellectual and cultural context for the philosophical ideas conveyed in the excerpts. Extensive cross-referencing shows students how philosophers respond appreciatively or critically to the thoughts of other philosophers. The text is enhanced by two types of exercises--"Basic Questions" and "For Further Thought"--and forty illustrations. -/- NEW TO THE SIXTH EDITION: -/- * Coverage of Iris Murdoch and Zen, and an expanded portrait of Jean-Paul Sartre * A more concise, single-chapter (22) treatment of Wittgenstein * Key terms, boldfaced throughout and listed at chapter ends * Brief and provocative quotations that stimulate thought and provoke questions * A new section on how to read philosophy * A new appendix: Writing a Philosophy Paper * A Companion Website at www.oup.com/us/melchert featuring resources for students including key points, flashcards, multiple-choice questions, and Internet resources * A revised Instructor's Manual and Test Bank containing key points, teaching suggestions, and multiple-choice, short-answer, and essay exam questions (available on the companion website and on CD) -/- Also available to suit your course needs: The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy, Sixth Edition (combined volume covering the Pre-Socratics through Derrida, Quine, and Dennett) and The Great Conversation: Volume I: Pre-Socratics through Descartes (includes chapters 1-13 of the combined volume). (shrink)

Philosophy plays an integral role in French society, affecting its art, drama, politics, and culture. In this accessible, chronological survey, Matthews offers some explanations for the enduring popularity of the subject and traces the developments that French philosophy has taken in the twentieth century, from its roots in the thought of Descartes to key figures such as Bergson, Sartre, Marcel, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault, Derrida, and the recent French Feminists.

Counterpath is a collaborative work by Catherine Malabou and Jacques Derrida that answers to the gamble inherent in the idea of “travelling with” the philosopher of deconstruction. Malabou's readerly text of quotations and commentary demonstrates how Derrida's work, while appearing to be anything but a travelogue, is nevertheless replete with references to geographical and topographical locations, and functions as a kind of counter-Odyssey through meaning, theorizing, and thematizing notions of arrival, drifting, derivation, and catastrophe. In fact, by going straight to (...) the heart of the Derridean idea of “spacing,” she finally makes it seem as though Derrida has never written about anything but travel. Malabou's text is punctuated by a series of postcards received by Derrida from destinations such as Istanbul and Porto, Laguna Beach and Athens, which are inspired by his reading of her evolving discussion. Writing in a familiar and unguarded manner, as if he were “on vacation” from his own writing, Derrida still remains totally faithful to that work and invites the reader to reflect on much of what haunts his texts as well as his daily life, questions of distance and death, the relation to the other, and exile. (shrink)

"Magliola's exposition of Derrida has been acclaimed as the best in English.

Although many still see Derrida as a thinker opposed to a unified systematic meaning, there has recently been growing recognition that Derrida, in his later years, suggested that his work is not averse to formalisation. In support of this view, this paper points out that, in 1990, Derrida himself told us that his first work of 1954 reveals a “law” which impels his career, and that some responses had arisen even there. Some benefits of adopting such a common pole are (...) set out, and an interrelated “system” developed to relate the law of 1954 to the later responses, in order to help find a common, systematic base for Derrida’s oeuvre. The need to accommodate approaches which are wary of a systematic approach is nevertheless acknowledged, and possible ways of reconciling the diverse readings of Derrida’s intent and collaboratively furthering the formalisation of Derrida’s oeuvre for posterity are outlined in closing. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, Volume 10, Edition 2, October 2010: 43-60. (shrink)

Contemporary Continental Philosophy steps back from current debates comparing Continental and analytic philosophy and carefully, yet critically outlines the tradition’s main philosophical views on epistemology and ontology. Forgoing obscure paraphrases, D’Amico provides a detailed, clear account and assessment of the tradition from its founding by Husserl and Heidegger to its challenge by Derrida and Foucault. Though intended as a survey of this tradition throughout the twentieth century, this study’s focus is on the philosophical problems which gave it birth and even (...) now continue to shape it.The book reexamines Husserl as an early critic of epistemological naturalism whose grasp of the philosophical importance of the theory of meaning was largely ignored. Heidegger’s contrasting effort to revive ontology is examined in terms of his distinction between ontic and ontological questions. In contrast with many earlier studies, the author outlines confusions engendered by the misappropriation of the distinct philosophical agendas of Husserl and Heidegger by such famous figures as Sartre and Merleau-Ponty. The book is also original in its emphasis on how social externalism in epistemology, inspired by Karl Mannheim, influenced this tradition’s structuralist and Marxist phases. The philosophical defenses of a theory of interpretation by Gadamer and Habermas are closely examined and assessed and the study concludes with a a probing yet balanced account of Foucault and Derrida as critics of philosophical autonomy. The book concludes by reassessing this century-long divide between the analytic and Continental traditions and its implication for the future of philosophy. (shrink)

Compact INTRODUCING guide to this commonly overlooked body of thought. What makes philosophy on the continent of Europe so different and exciting? And why does it have such a reputation for being 'difficult'? Covering the great philosophers of the modern and postmodern eras - Nietzsche, Heidegger, Derrida, Deleuze, right to up Agamben and Zizek - and philosophical movements from German idealism to Feminism Christopher Kul-want and Piero brilliantly elucidate some of the most thrilling ideas ever to have been discussed. INTRODUCING (...) is a series of graphic guides that covers every key thinker and topic in philosophy, psychology and science, and many others in politics, religion, cultural studies, linguistics and other areas. Each book is written by an expert in the field, and illustrated by a leading graphic artist. (shrink)

Here is the concluding volume of Sir Anthony Kenny's monumental four-volume history of philosophy, the first major single-author narrative history to appear for several decades. In this volume, Kenny tells the fascinating story of the development of philosophy in the modern world, from the early nineteenth century to the end of the millennium. Alongside (and intertwined with) extraordinary scientific advances, cultural changes, and political upheavals, the last two centuries have seen some of the most intriguing and original developments in philosophical (...) thinking, which have transformed our understanding of ourselves and our world. In the first part of the book, Kenny offers a lively narrative introducing the major thinkers in their historical context. Among those we meet are the great figures of continental European philosophy, from Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche to Heidegger, Sartre, and Derrida; the Pragmatists such as C.S. Pierce and William James, who first developed a distinctively American philosophical tradition; Marx, Darwin, and Freud, the non-philosophers whose influence on philosophy was immense; and Wittgenstein and Russell, friends and colleagues who set the agenda for analytic philosophy in the twentieth century. Kenny then proceeds to guide the reader lucidly through the nine main areas of philosophical work in the period, offering a serious engagement with ideas and arguments about logic, language, epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, politics, and the existence of God. Graced with many beautiful illustrations, Philosophy in the Modern World concludes Kenny's stimulating history of the intellectual development of Western civilization, allowing readers to trace the birth and growth of philosophy from antiquity to the present day. (shrink)

Philosophy is one of the most intimidating and difficult of disciplines, as any of its students can attest. This book is an important entry in a distinctive new series from Routledge: The Great Philosophers . Breaking down obstacles to understanding the ideas of history's greatest thinkers, these brief, accessible, and affordable volumes offer essential introductions to the great philosophers of the Western tradition from Plato to Wittgenstein. In just 64 pages, each author, a specialist on his subject, places the philosopher (...) and his ideas into historical perspective. Each volume explains, in simple terms, the basic concepts, enriching the narrative through the effective use of biographical detail. And instead of attempting to explain the philosopher's entire intellectual history, which can be daunting, this series takes one central theme in each philosopher's work, using it to unfold the philosopher's thoughts. (shrink)