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Radical Rethinking of Multi- vs Monolingualism
This small, but fascinating, book opens with a semi-autobiographical note: I am monolingual. My monolingualism dwells, and I call it my dwelling." But it quickly launches into Derrida's signature philosophical moves. The book asks to examine our assumption that in an age of globalization, claims to multilingualism are always superior to the acknowledged state of being monolingual.

A meditation on language and culture
"Monolingualism of the Other; or, The Prosthesis of Origin," by Jacques Derrida, is a compelling blend of autobiographical material and cultural criticism. Originally published in French in 1996, the text has been translated into English by Patrick Mensah. According to a note at the beginning of the book, a shorter, different version of the text was delivered orally at a colloquium at the Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, in 1992.

In the book, Derrida reflects on his past as an Algerian Jew living under French colonialism. He raises questions about language politics, personal identity, cultural domination, the notion of a "mother tongue," and the idea of "metalanguage." He reflects on the practical mechanics of French colonial administration in Algeria, and on Algeria's Jewish population: "a disintegrated 'community,' cut up and cut off." He also discusses his own problematic relationship with the French language.

I found "Monolingualism of the Other" absolutely gripping. Although Derrida's prose (as translated by Mensah) sometimes strikes me as convoluted to the point of obscurity, I often found Derrida's style to be elegant, even poetic, and very accessible. But be warned: if you're intimidated by phrases like "ontico-ontological re-mark," "a pre-egological ipseity," or "the hegemony of the homogeneous," the book may be a bit much to take.

But many will, I believe, tear into this challenging text with gusto. I believe that the issues raised by Derrida in this book are relevant to many other cultural phenomena: the debate over Black English, the political and literary recognition of creole and pidgin languages, the ongoing efforts to preserve the Celtic languages, etc. If you have a serious interest in these and related issues, I strongly recommend this book.

strikingly readable
after wading through _writing and difference_, this nice little book was a most pleasant surprise. In comparison to W & D, _The Monolingualism of the Other_is a very readable book and there are plenty of ideas presented in this text that can be grasped without fully understanding Derrida's project. In conjunction with this, many of the ideas that Derrida discusses can be accepted and implented into ones own thought without necessarily agreeing with Derrida's project. An enjoyable and thought-provoking read.

mildly interesting
I'll admit right now that this is the first (and probably last) of Derrida's books that I've read cover to cover.Therefore I'm sure all those converted post-modernists will lambast me for not fully grasping the meaning of this book since I can't put it in the context of Derrida's other works.

Nonetheless there is some interesting stuff here for the newcomer, especially anyone interested in what it means to have a language as 'one's own' or to have a 'mother tongue.'Derrida asks these questions in reference to his experiences as a French-speaking Algerian Jew and as a participant at a conference in French-speaking Louisiana (where this work was first presented).The whole book is about Derrida's problems with identity and language, and he is mildly interesting in drawing out some paradoxes like 'we only ever speak one language' and 'we never speak only one language.'He documents his personal problems with language, claiming that 'I feel lost outside the French language.'

Yet Derrida writes in a very annoying style, creating new words every other page and presenting the book as if it were the transciption of a dialogue.It's also overpriced unless you're a Derrida fanatic, which means you probably already own it anyway.

Not exactly a must read.

French as a site of at once Identification and Resistance
The book, inheriting and deviating the previous ones of Jacques Derrida.It contains multi-layer of signification or 'inter-textuality' as Kristeva suggests in Revolution in Poetic Language.In the first stance, French isa materialistic of identification.In the second, it'a a point ofresistance and rebellion.For, the linguistic characteristic of French asto Derrida possesses the significance of racial discrimination, culturalhegemony and 'grand narrative' covertly.The aforesaid is mainstream ofhis discourse within this book.Of course, hereby some ideologies and theproblematic of migration and agony of in-between identification are leftbehind. ... Read more

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Derrida has said what he says here more clearly elsewhere.
This book is not really three essays. It is three lectures.For Derrida,this is a big difference.Derrida is both a brilliant writer and abrilliant lecturer, but his lectures don't read that well.I think itsadmirable that publishers are making so much of Derrida's materialavailable, but this book is inferior to much of the rest of Derrida'savailable work (such as: Margins of Philosophy, Glas, Of Spirit, ...) Thisbook is really only for those who have worked their way through at least acouple of Derrida's other books. ... Read more

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Completing the translation of Derrida’s monumental work "Right to Philosophy" (the first part of which has already appeared under the title of "Who’s Afraid of Philosophy?"), "Eyes of the University" brings together many of the philosopher’s most important texts on the university and, more broadly, on the languages and institutions of philosophy.

In addition to considerations of the implications for literature and philosophy of French becoming a state language, of Descartes’ writing of the "Discourse on Method" in French, and of Kant’s and Schelling’s philosophies of the university, the volume reflects on the current state of research and teaching in philosophy and on the question of what Derrida calls a "university responsibility."

Examining the political and institutional conditions of philosophy, the essays collected here question the growing tendency to orient research and teaching towards a programmable and profitable end. The volume is therefore invaluable for the light it throws upon an underappreciated aspect of Derrida’s own engagement, both philosophical and political, in struggles against the stifling of philosophical research and teaching.

As a founding member of the Research Group on the Teaching of Philosophy and as one of the conveners of the Estates General of Philosophy, Derrida was at the forefront of the struggle to preserve and extend the teaching of philosophy as a distinct discipline, in secondary education and beyond, in the face of conservative government education reforms in France.As one of the founders of the Collège International de Philosophie, he worked to provide a space for research in and around philosophy that was not accepted or legitimated in other institutions.Documenting and reflecting upon these engagements, "Eyes of the University" brings together some of the most important and incisive of Derrida’s deconstructive work. ... Read more

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Not Virginia Woolf...
This text is part of a much larger work entitled `Du droit a la philosophie' (Right to Philosophy), a collection of letters, essays, interviews and talks given by Derrida in the 1970s and 1980s.These deal with issues around teaching philosophy, the nature and problems of philosophical writing and research, how the discipline of philosophy relates to institutions (with a particular emphasis on universities), all with Derrida's classic insight and deconstructive sense of the mind.

During the 1960s and into the 1970s, higher education was a centre of change and rebellion, in a polyvalent sense of these terms.Not only growth of the mind and new discoveries that inevitably lead to change, and not only reinterpretation and changing systems and structures due to the deconstruction of traditional and static frameworks, but literally through the rebellion and sometimes violent actions of students (with the support of not a few faculty members, in France and in America), change was taking place.There was a grand meeting called in France in the late 1970s with the intention of discerning the fate of the philosophical discipline, whose proposals (the Haby proposal) were never implemented, but whose spirit helped establish the College International de Philosophie.

Derrida first looks at the right to philosophy, from the various ways this sentence can be constructed.What is a right to philosophy?Who has a right to philosophy?What is assumed as foundational and institutional, and what looks out beyond these to horizons? What are rights?Derrida places much emphasis on linguistic interpretation and deconstruction, looking both at the right to language and the right of language in the quest for the right to philosophy.There is a vast amount of privilege here.

Derrida looks at the roles of teachers, the very concept and the structure of faculty classes today and in the past.He identifies a crisis in teaching, particularly in the teaching of philosophy, in historical and conceptual paradigms.Philosophy would always be borne of crisis and finds its life in crisis - it is only in the constancy of questions that philosophy continues, which means a constancy of doubt and the unknown, and this can represent crisis.However, there are more `concrete' crises which deal with the political (is philosophy doing what the institution, supported by the state, wants it to do?) and the broader intellectual context of the rise (perhaps dominance) of the mathematical and physical sciences all the while undergoing their own crisis of confidence.

This is not an easy text,nor is it one that readers of general philosophy will find of interest.It assumes two things - a high degree of familiarity with Derrida, and a high degree of familiarity with the societal situation in philosophy education, particularly in France.In some ways, this could be a post-modern response to John Henry Newman's `Idea of a University'; in the midst of the particular, Derrida does address in his typical fashion larger ideas of importance to higher education today. ... Read more

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How to Read Rigorously--Derrida Through Hegel
Hegel's philosophy claims to be a presuppositionless witnessing to the self-transformations of being: Hegel does not himself speak in his philosophy, does not put forth theses, but simply gives voice to the indwelling expression of being itself.This is quite a claim--unprecedented in the history of philosophy.If Hegel is right, then one should be able to start anywhere, with anything, and, by letting it "speak for itself," one should be able to find the same things Hegel found.Again, if Hegel is right, everything is already spoken for within his philosophy.One way to interpret Derrida's _Glas_ is as a taking up of this invitation."Is Jean Genet," Derrida might be thought to ask, "already written in Hegel's philosophy?"Derrida's book proceeds by a simple process: reading.He opens Hegel's book, and follows out the demands of reading it._Glas_ is more or less a documenting of the thoughts that develop in a reading of Hegel: "If this is so, wouldn't this follow? And what about this?"Generally, Derrida's reading raises (progressively more subtle) challenges to Hegel's writing, and then, through continued reading, finds that Hegel's text has already anticipated and accommodated these challenges.And, indeed, as the reading then turns into a reading of Genet, it turns out that Genet's texts themselves give rise to the very dialectic Hegel articulates.This is an exceptionally difficult book.You cannot read it competently without a good knowledge of Hegel and without at least familiarity with Genet.Furthermore, to read it means to make yourself open to having your own views about Hegel (and also about Genet and also about Derrida) change.You must approach this book as Genet approaches the Gospel of John--like a miner entering a mine, unsure he'll get out of the mine again.This book is well worth the read for serious students of Continental Philosophy: both scholars and Hegel and scholars of Derrida will (if they make themselves open to it, and are rigorous) have their presumptions about the other philosopher challenged.Highly recommended, but do some preparation first.

1000pp on EVERYTHING
Bearing in mind Derrida's honey-like style, with which both writes and absents himself, this book shows that in Truth Hegel is the last philosopher of the book and the first thinker of writing owing to his entirely transgressive relationship with his sister (whom he loved) by virtue of the influence of Genet's oeuvre (which is not a work), the latter clearly touching Hegel for the simple reason that his avatars and demons (Sartre, Bataille) misrecognized him, as though he were the sun which they dared not look upon for fear of blindess. The rose pricks the eagle and the eagle tumbles.

1000pp on EVERYTHING
Bearing in mind the sweet honey of Derida's style, with which he writes and absents himself, we can say that Derrida has shown Hegel to be the last philosopher of the book and the first thinker of writing by the economic grace of his utterly perverted relationship with his sister, starting with the B column on Genet, who was misconstrued by Bataille and so by Sartre. The rose pricks the eagle.

Inter allya ... Read more

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This volume collects 23 interviews given over the course of the last two decades by the author. It illustrates the extraordinary breadth of the Derrida's concerns, touching upon such subjects as AIDS, philosophy, sexual difference and feminine identity, the media, politics, and nationalism. ... Read more

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This volume combines loosely "autobiographical" texts bytwo of the most famous French intellectuals of our time. ... Read more

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How does one start with Derrida? In this exciting and accessible book, Sean Gaston presents a new kind of introduction to Jacques Derrida, arguably the most important and influential European thinker of the last century. Derrida claimed that "However old I am, I am on the threshold of reading Plato and Aristotle ... we need to read them again and again and again." In Starting with Derrida, Gaston introduces all Derrida's major works and ideas by tracing Derrida's reading (and re-reading) of Plato, Aristotle and Hegel throughout his writings.

Starting with Derrida argues for the importance of the relationship between philosophy, literature and history in Derrida's work and addresses all the key concepts in Derrida's thought, including his work on time and space, being and the soul, sensation and thought, history and literature, the concept and the name. The book encourages the reader to enter Derrida's varied and complex legacy through the moments in Derrida's work that are concerned with the question of origins and beginnings. By actively engaging with Derrida's ideas in this way, Gaston reveals a new and highly original reading of Derrida's work and provides a useful introduction to his entire corpus.

This exciting new book is essential reading for students of philosophy and literary theory and, indeed, anyone interested in the work of this hugely important thinker. ... Read more

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Prompted by the unification of Europe in 1992 and by recent events in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Jacques Derrida begins this compelling essay on contemporary world politics with the issue of European identity. What, he asks, is Europe? How has Europe traditionally been defined and how is the current world situation changing that definition? Might the prospects of a New Europe demand not only a new definition of European identity but also a new way of thinking identity itself?

Navigating in and through texts of Marx, Husserl, and especially Valéry, Derrida seeks a redefinition of European identity that includes respect both for difference and for universal values. The Other Heading appeals eloquently for a sustained effort at thinking through the complexity and the multiple dangers and opportunities of the contemporary world situation without resorting to easy or hasty solutions.

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Derrida on Speech-Act Theory
This is Derrida's critique of speech-act theory. The importance of Speech-act theory for linguistics is that it seems to advance beyond referential theories of language by focusing on what language actually does in specific pragmatic contexts. LIMITED INC serves as one of the most concise and clear versions of Derrida's notoriously difficult philosophy or method. Derrida's basic thesis is about language, so this book goes to theheart of his deconstructive project. In essence, he argues that we can never actually say what we mean. Not only that, we can never even mean what we mean. If this is his thesis, then a straightforward exposition of this claim would be obviously self-contradictory; hence Derrida's obscure and elliptical method. In this particular book, he focuses on "iterability"; words can be repeated, and when they are, they never have exactly the same meaning. Furthermore, meaning depends upon context, yet the definition of the context is always arbitrary. Derrida's thesis depends upon the gap between material word and immaterial meaning; the "materiality of the signifier" is the residue or "supplement" which conventional theories of language typically ignore.

The first section, "Signature, Event, Context," is a reprint of an journal article by Derrida which critiques Austin's speech-act theory. In response, John Searle wrote a defense of Austin which attempts to refute Derrida. Since Searle refuses to allow his essay to be reprinted, the editor gives us a three-page summary/paraphrase. The next section is Derrida's long response to Searle, "Limited Inc a b c . . ." The final section is Derrida's answers to some questions posed by Gerald Graff. Possibly the funniest part is "Limited Inc," in which Derrida responds to Searle. While Searle is the model analytic philosopher, always attempting to clarify the issue, Derrida delights in digressions, puns, deliberately provocative claims, and obfuscations. For example, he insists on referring to Searle as "Sarl" for reasons which I shall not attempt to summarize here. It seems rather childish on Derrida's part to refuse to call Searle by his proper name.

The questions raised by Graff in the final section go to the heart of the problems with Derrida's method, and Derrida's answers are for the most part obviously inadequate. Derrida does have a point about the problems with conventional theories of language, but he totally ignores how language actually functions in this world. Speech-act theory does not resolve those problems either. In order to understand language, we need to analyze it in anthropological terms, recognizing that language distinguishes humans from all other animals.

Clearly Put
"Limited Inc." is made up of three sections: "Speech Event Context" as the core (or intro?), "A,B,C..." as a responce to Searl's rediculousness/seriousness, and a last section of which i cannot remember the name but worth the read."Limited Inc." is worth is weight in gold alone in Speech Event Context, as it is Derrida at his most clear and concise, a refreshing change.It discusses the concept of iritability and in many ways sums up much of Derrida's work in writing."A,B,C.." however go to clear up Speech Event Context and take us on a wild ride through Searl's (lack of seriousness/too much seriousness) and go to greath lengths in interesting details.It may be the most amusing/humerous work by derrida simply through his conversationswith Searl.Well worth the read.

Who's serious?
"Let's be serious" Derrida writes. Then four paragraphs later he writes it again. Then several pages later again. What is the effect of this textual trope? It gives the reader the feeling that what Derrida has been writing, reasoning and arguing up to that point has not been "serious". And that means, it can't be philosophy, for philosophy concerns "serious" issues right? But all the while, Derrida continues to address important questions and "serious" arguments put forth by "serious" philosopher John Searle's... so surely he is in fact being serious? Can we be really be certain? Derrida, I think, wants to open up these questions and it is here where his style itself becomes the philosophical question: can we ever really be sure of conceptual serious and non-serious speech acts?

Limited Inc is a collection of three short pieces which encapsulate the famous exchange (or polemic?) b/w the late Austin, Derrida and american philosopher Searle. The first essay is Derrida's critique of Austin's earliest statement of Speech Act theory: "How to do things with Words". The second is Derrida lengthy reply to Searle's criticisms of Derrida's first essay (Searle is the crusader of contemporary Speech Acts.. Mr. Speech Acts, if you will) and the third, and perhaps most insightful is "Afterword" an interview with Derrida several years after the fact, where Derrida reflects on the "violence" of the earlier Searle-Derrida exchange.

I give Limited Inc a 5 star rating for simply the addition of "Afterwords". This interview is the (in my experience) clearest statement of Derrida's project of deconstruction-- to lessen the "violence" of philosophical practices and bring them to a new contextual level where they no longer operate undetected. It is also Derrida's first direct response to many of the (I believe) misdirected attacks on deconstruction -- e.g., the much misunderstood phrase "il n'y a pas d'ors text" -- there is nothing outside the text, which Derrida states vehemently, means not that there is no "reality" outside of a text (idealism) but, there is nothing outside of "context".

It is points like this, I believe, which will help clear up a lot of the speculation surrounding Derrida's philosophy *and* politics. Limited Inc, I predict, will be an integral text in bringing Derrida's unique philosophical enterprise its into the Post-Wittgensteinian analytic tradition where it deserves to be studied.

Entertaining
Anyone interested in the philosophy of language will find Derrida's deconstructionist take on J.L. Austin's "How to Do Things With Words" quite interesting, and, at times, enlightening.But the realfun in this book is when Derrida begins to attack John Searle's response toDerrida's take on Austin.He takes off his gloves and really goes afterhim and if anything, you'll be left questioning your assumptions about thematurity levels of renowned academics. ... Read more

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In Raising the Tone of Philosophy, Peter Fenves expands the context of Jacques Derrida's work on voice and tonality by presenting the first English translations of two of Kant's important late essays, "On a Newly Arisen Superior Tone in Philosophy" and "Announcement of a Near Conclusion of a Treaty for Eternal Peace in Philosophy." The book also includes a revised translation, by John Leavey, of Derrida's "On a Newly Arisen Apocalyptic Tone in Philosophy," which rewrites and reorients Kant's essays. After showing how Kant and Derrida concur on at least one point -- the voice of reason guards a secret -- Fenves proposes that these essays reveal the ineluctable tonality of all philosophical texts, especially those that wish to announce an end to philosophy.

"Not only an indispensable text for readers of Kant and Derrida; it also encourages our hopes for that degree of clarity and light which we mere mortals may fleetingly enjoy." -- Michigan Quarterly Review

"Fenves has done an admirable job of tracing the occasion of Kant's polemics on tone." -- Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

"This handy volume makes available [Derrida's] 'deconstructive' analysis of the Kantian critical tradition which has been heretofore unavailable to the English reading public." -- Reader's Review

"The chances of finding Derrida together with a philosopher like Kant are slim. In Peter Fenves's impeccably edited Raising the Tone of Philosophy, such an improbability is not only realized but is precisely what is at stake." -- TLS

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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, Lévi Strauss, Roussseau), “Différance” (his essay on language and life), Dissemination (his dismantling of Plato, his rap on Mallarmé), along with his other masterpieces. ... Read more

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Breaks the hymen of the virgin reader
Outside of the unjustified claim that the 1966 lectures of Jacques Derrida were a "major philosophical coup" that "cast the entire history of philosophy in the West into doubt", and the annoying illustrations, this book does a good job of explaining some of the ideas of Derrida to the curious reader. Derridean philosophy has been viewed as a threat to some in the conservative political movement and in the scientific profession. Given the incredible strides in science and technology since 1966 it is difficult to believe that this kind of philosophy had any effect at all, but it instigated a backlash from some scientists, which continues to this day (but at a level of amplitude considerably smaller than a decade or two ago).

Readers who have a background in linguistic philosophy will of course better appreciate the book but it could be approached by anyone who has an interest in Derrida or French philosophy in general. The author's assertion that philosophy in France is better appreciated by the public than other countries is believable, considering the social practices of French society: long lunch times and openness to ideas that are strong perturbations from past ones. The author is clearly at odds with those who assert that deconstruction was a response to the "boredom" of structuralism since he implies that deconstruction was rather an impediment to it. Of course the author would have strayed from his path of delivering an elementary introduction to deconstruction if he would have debated this in depth.

The book therefore does its job, but there are places in the book which strain the readers patience and understanding, especially his discussion of the "hymen" and its "either/or" analogy. Readers do not need to be told that syntax is the "placement" and "grammatical status" of the word in a sentence, and not its "meaning." Another analogy needs to be used here, both by Derrida and the author, instead of just referring to the hymen as representing "shifts" in the syntax, or the "double folding" process in a sentence.

The bottom line though is that research in cognitive neuroscience will settle the question of "how a text means", not philosophical musings. In a decade or two Derrida's work will no doubt be viewed as a philosopher's attempt to explain "textuality", with the real answer coming from the science of the brain. Such scientific explanations may indeed encompass all of the musings and theorizing that has taken place in Western philosophy. Western philosophy will thus be "deconstructed", but not from the Derridean word salad that is delineated in this book: rather from a scientific dissection of what reading and interpreting is all about.

10 reasons you shouldn't be embarrassed to be seen reading this book...
[1] It's not any more embarrassing than being caught with a copy of "Sandman," "Sin City," "Watchmen," or any of the other more high-brow graphic novels ("comic books," as they're known around the house in their t-shirts and underpants), not to mention kicking back with a collection of the complete "Calvin & Hobbes." Even the great Einstein needed a little brain-candy from time-to-time, I'll bet.

[2] Derrida himself might have approved the concept--the unorthodox method of using a combination of text, image, and humor in as "degraded" and "marginalized" a medium as the comic book to present a discipline as unorthodox as deconstruction which champions the marginalized.

[3] You can always pretend your reviewing it for your gifted four-year-old who's taking an Introductory Post-Structuralism seminar at the super-exclusive preschool where the little egghead is enrolled.

[4] "Derrida for Beginners" actually does give you a solid basis for understanding the key components of deconstruction--a platform from which to launch, if you choose, a further exploration of this complex discipline. As an overview of Derrida's entire body of work, you are much better oriented to the difficult terrain than if you were to start off cold reading "Of Grammatology," let's say.

[5] Chances are really good that no one who sees you reading this book has any idea who Derrida is and would therefore be reluctant to poke fun at you. After all, you may only have a comic book knowledge of Derrida and deconstruction, but that's more than your altogether ignorant interlocutor possesses.

[6] This book is titled "Derrida for Beginners," not "Derrida for Dummies," or an "Idiot's Guide to Derrida." So right off the bat, you can feel a lot better about yourself. You're not sitting behind a book announcing you to every passerby as either an idiot or a dummy. You're simply a beginner. Like a beginner at swimming, or sumi-e, or mountain-climbing. There's nothing shameful about being a beginner. Furthermore, the implication here is that Derrida isn't a subject for idiots or dummies, no matter how dumbed down.
Be proud. You're taking on a subject those intellectual Cro-Magnons slunk behind their Grishams and Dan Browns wouldn't take on for another thirty or forty-thousand years.

[7] It's a fun, fast, clever, informative read--who cares what other people think, anyway? Most of them are ill-informed boobs who can't think as it is. Deconstruct them! While they're snickering, this book will show you how.

[8] Come on, help me out here. Ten reasons for anything are a lot. Deconstruction invites participation from the reader; actually, it presupposes the unavoidable input of the reader. You're not just passively reading this list, but in the act of reading you're altering it as well. So you take number eight and I'll move on to reasons nine and ten.

[9] You don't have to be "seen" reading this book at all. Read it in a closet, with a booklight. Or in the bathroom. Provided you're regular enough, and the plumbing is okay, you should have the basics of deconstruction down in about a week.

[10] Deconstruction as a discipline, and Derrida as a philosopher, are important, not only in themselves, but in the influence they've had on subsequent thought. Much of what we see today in the arts, in literature, in academia, in politics, even in pop culture, bears the pawprints of deconstruction whether your realize it or not. It's always better to realize it...and this book, festooned as it is with silliness and fun, will very seriously help you do just that.

Only Book on Deconstruction That Has Made Sense to Me
I think deconstruction is important but have difficulty understanding it.This book is the only lucid explanation I've seen of it's basic principles.

very helpful
If you are beginning to read derrida, this book will be very helpful. Now if they only made one for Judith Butler! (Skip the Foucault, his theories are not that complex.)

Accessible. Important.Powerful knowledge for any human.
This book is concerned with making accessible the often inaccessible Derrida.Derrida's philosophy will help you develop a healthy sensibility and cynicism for 'knowledge' and 'representation.'
Do not be fooled by the 'for beginners' title; it is not simply an introduction, it is a hands-on intepretation of several his 'major' works.The book has any value for anyone interested in learning about the world in which we live. ... Read more

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Reflections on Religion on the Island of Capri
Jacques Derrida's contribution to this seminar which was held in 1994 on the island of Capri is the essay entitled "Faith and Knowledge."What is particularly interesting about this keynote address is Derrida's neologism "globalatinization" which he defines as "this strange alliance of Christianity, as the experience of the death of God, and tele-technoscientificcapitalism."There is talk of religion and digitality, airborn pilgrimages to Mecca, Jerusalem and its three monotheisms watched over by the heavenly and monstrous glance of CNN, a Pope versed in televisual rhetoric, miracles transmitted live followed by commercials, and lastly the televisual diplomacy of the Dalai Lama.Because Capri is an island not far from Rome, Derrida also has some interesting things to say about religion in the Mediterranean and the Levant, as well as the Promised Land and the desert. This essay is particularly opaque and beautiful and it would definitely help the reader if he or she is familiar with Martin Heidegger's Sein und Zeit (Being And Time) as well as Beitrage zur Philosophie (Contributions to Philosophy), as JD name drops the great German philosopher's ideas here and there throughout this essay.This is definitely good beach reading.

A Neccessary Conversation
Derrida and Vattimo's collection of essays given on the Isle of Capri truly shows how even postmodern philosophy must still come front-and-center with the question of religion.As postmodernity brings an end to themetaphysics that made God undesirable, a different type of God, a God ofLife (as Unamuno would call it) must be dealt with anew.Derrida, Vattimo,Gadamar, Vitiello, Trias and others discuss the role of religion in an agethat claims to be so removed from it.

My personal impression of the bookis that Derrida reveals the type of religious issues that he offered us inhis _Circumfessions_ and is wonderfully explicated in John Caputo's_Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida_.Vitiello's essay "Toward aTopology of the Religious" is insightful and necessary (if onlyNietzsche could have read it!).

arrogant cowardice
This is a very saddening book in which these authors, who have helped to move our thinking away from some of the remnants of religion over which we continue to trip, express their (perhaps elderly, not to say senile)longing for old-time religion itself.Not only that, but they suggest, asopponents of postmodernism or pragmatism do, that outgrowing the tiresomeremnants of religion found in the arrogant self-descriptions of scientistsor ethicists actually allows (or is it causes?) "the return ofreligion" - an event which they claim to be witnessing although theyoffer little argument for its existence or desirability.They seem (and,of course, each takes a slightly different tack) to be arguing ad populuminstead of admitting their desire for religion.They explain that peopleare scared by nuclear proliferation and environmental destruction and areturning to religion, but do not address whether such false comfort shouldbe joined in.Rather, they simply join in it - without, however, everquite saying so.Not one of them writes "I believe in God," buteach asserts by every word he writes "God is worth writingabout."

not nothing
Derrida misses out on the spiritual dimension in this book--although other authors have pointed out similarities between Derrida's thought and that of Nagarjuna.Especially helpful are Powell's "Derrida forBeginners," and Coward's Derrida and Negative Theology."

SUPERB
RELIGION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS. DERRIDA FALLS SHORT OF EXPLAINING THENEED FOR RELIGION AND TRANSCENDENCE, BUT AS USUALLY HE IS FASCINATING ANDDIFFICULT. ... Read more

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Contents* Shibboleth: For Paul Celan* "A Self-Unsealing Poetic Text": Poetics and Politics of Witnessing* Language Does Not Belong: An Interview* The Majesty of the Present: Reading Celan's "The Meridian"* Rams: Uninterrupted Dialogue--between Two Infinities, the PoemThis book brings together five powerful encounters. Themes central to all ofDerrida's writings thread the intense confrontation between the most famousphilosopher of our time and the Jewish poet writing in German who, perhapsmore powerfully than any other, has testified to the European experience ofthe twentieth century.They include the date or signature and its singularity; the notion of the trace;temporal structures of futurity and the "to come"; the multiplicity of languageand questions of translation; such speech acts as testimony and promising, butalso lying and perjury; the possibility of the impossible; and, above all, the questionof the poem as addressed and destined beyond knowledge, seeking to speak toand for the irreducibly other.The memory of encounters with thinkers who have also engaged Celan's workanimates these writings, which include a brilliant dialogue between twointerpretative modes--hermeneutics and deconstruction. Derrida's approach toa poem is a revelation on many levels, from the most concrete ways of reading--for example, his analysis of a sequence of personal pronouns--to the mostsweeping imperatives of human existence (and Derrida's writings are alwaysa study in the imbrication of such levels). Above all, he voices the call toresponsibility in the ultimate line of Celan's poem: "The world is gone,I must carry you," which sounds throughout the book's final essay like a refrain. Only two of the texts in this volume do not appear here in English for the first time.Of these, Schibboleth has been entirely retranslated and has been set following Derrida's own instructions for publication in French; "A Self-Unsealing Poetic Text" was substantially rewritten by Derrida himself and basically appears here as the translation of a new text. Jacques Derrida's most recent books in English translation include Counterpath: Traveling with Jacques Derrida (with Catherine Malabou). He died in Paris on October 8, 2004. Thomas Dutoit teaches at the Université de Paris 7. He translated Aporias and edited On the Name, both by Jacques Derrida. ... Read more

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An intensely scholarly text for advanced students of philosophy and literature
Written by one of the most influential philosophers in modern history, Sovereignties In Question: The Poetics Of Paul Celan evaluates the work of Paul Celan, a Jewish poet writing in German who offers a vivid scrutiny of the European experience in the twentieth century. Resonating with complex interplay to a degree that simulates a clash of stubborn wills, Sovereignties in Question covers such subtle issues as the notion of the trace, the temporal structures of futurity and "to come", the multiplicity of language, the significance of speech acts such as testimony, promising, lying, and perjury, and much more. An intensely scholarly text for advanced students of philosophy and literature.
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Seven eminent authors, all known for their work in deconstruction, address the millennial issue of our "futures," "promises," "prophecies," "projects," and "possibilities"-including the possibility that there may be no "future" at all. Speculative in every sense, these essays are marked by a common concern for the act of reading as it is practiced in the work of Jacques Derrida. The contributors-Geoffrey Bennington, Paul Davies, Peter Fenves, Werner Hamacher, Jean-Michel Rabaté, Elisabeth Weber, and Jacques Derrida himself-study a range of authors, including Pascal, Kant, Hegel, Leibniz, Marx, Benjamin, Koyré, Arendt, and Lacan.

These readings are neither prescriptive, definitive, nor definitional. Each essay seeks out, in the work it studies, those moments that pronounce or propose futures that enable speculation, moments in which the speculator has to make promises. As Derrida says in his essay, "Between lying and acting, acting in politics, manifesting one's own freedom through action, transforming facts, anticipating the future, there is something like an essential affinity. . . . The lie is the future." Or, in the words of Werner Hamacher, "The futurity of language, its inherent promising capacity, is the ground-but a ground with no solidity whatever-for all present and past experiences, meanings, and figures which could communicate themselves in it."

These essays, though arising from deconstruction, point out the ways in which deconstruction has yet to occur, and they do so by scanning the unattainable horizons marked off by thinkers at the forefront of our modern era. ... Read more

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The work of Jacques Derrida has transformed our understanding of a range of disciplines in the humanities through its questioning of some of the basic tenets of western metaphysics. This volume is a trans-disciplinary collection dedicated to his work. The assembled contributions--on law, literature, ethics, gender, politics and psychoanalysis--constitute an investigation of the role of Derrida's work in the humanities, present and future. The volume is distinguished by work on some of his most recent writings, and contains Derrida's own address on "the future of the humanities". ... Read more

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