A reappraisal of deconstruction from one of its leading commentators, focusing on the themes of force and violence. In this book, Rodolphe Gasché returns to some of the founding texts of deconstruction to propose a new and broader way of understanding it-not as an operation or method to reach an elusive outside, or beyond, of metaphysics, but as something that takes place within it. Rather than unraveling metaphysics, deconstruction loosens its...

"The book argues for deconstruction's ongoing relevance, showing how Jacques Derrida's deep engagement with Freud across the full trajectory of his work, in particular his engagement with Freud's notion of life and death drives, supplies the key way into Derrida's recasting of life as life death and, in turn, survival"--

"Written in the aftermath of the deaths of the French philosophers Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) and Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005). this book is an important and innovative study of the contentious relation between deconstruction and hermeneutics, Offering close readings of Derrida's and Ricoeur's writings on phenomenology, psychoanalysis, structuralist linguistics. and Levinasian ethics, Efrichis Pirovolakis introduces the motif of "improbable encounters,"...

Called by many France's leading intellectual, Gilles Deleuze is one of the most important philosophers in the Western world. His acclaimed works and celebrated collaborations with Felix Guattari have established him as a seminal figure in the fields of philosophy, cultural studies, and literary theory. The publication of What Is Philosophy? marks the culmination of Deleuze's career. Deleuze and Guattari situate philosophy in the realm of problems...

First collected in Italy in 1985, Art's Claim to Truth is considered by many philosophers to be one of Gianni Vattimo's most important works. Newly revised for English readers, the book begins with a challenge to Plato, Aristotle, Kant, and Hegel, who viewed art as a metaphysical aspect of reality rather than a futuristic anticipation of it. Following Martin Heidegger's interpretation of the history of philosophy, Vattimo outlines the existential...

This classic work by one of the most important philosophers and critics of our time charts the genesis and trajectory of the desiring subject from Hegel's formulation in Phenomenology of Spirit to its appropriation by Kojève, Hyppolite, Sartre, Lacan, Deleuze, and Foucault. Judith Butler plots the French reception of Hegel and the successive challenges waged against his metaphysics and view of the subject, all while revealing ambiguities within his...

Derrida, quel diable d'homme! Preux de la pensée, partant en guerre contre tous et contre lui-même, chevalier de l'idéal comme Don Quichotte et politicien pragmatique comme Sancho Pança, il n'aura cessé de bouleverser de fond en comble nos idées reçues pour les relancer, accroître leur vélocité et en faire des armes conceptuelles redoutables. Ce livre s'attache à suivre certaines de ses campagnes, retraçant une trajectoire qui va de son...

Explores why Derrida, Hegel, and Heidegger conceive their thought as a "movement" rather than as a presentation of results or conclusions, and of the consequences of such an indirect method for critique and responsibility. This book explores the idea shared by Derrida, Hegel, and Heidegger that the value of their thought is not found in its results or conclusions, but in its "movement." All three describe the heart of their work in terms of a pathway,...

In his best-selling book You Must Change Your Life!, Peter Sloterdijk argued exercise and practice were crucial to the human condition. In The Art of Philosophy, he extends this critique to academic science and scholarship, casting the training processes of academic study as key to the production of sophisticated thought. Infused with humor and provocative insight, The Art of Philosophy further integrates philosophy and human existence, richly detailing...

In 1966, Jacques Derrida gave a lecture at Johns Hopkins University that cast the entire history of Western philosophy into doubt. The following year, Derrida published three brilliant but mystifying books that convinced the pollsters that he was the most important philosopher of the late 20th century. Unfortunately, nobody was sure whether the intellectual movement he spawned-Deconstruction-advanced philosophy or murdered it. The truth?-Derrida...