Jacques Derrida And 'Philosophy's Future'

In 1963, Derrida published one of his more important essays - "Violence and Metaphysics," a critique of the thought of Lithuanian-French philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas (1906-1995) ... the piece is lengthy and often dense, repeatedly demonstrating the enveloping, equivocal nature of both "Hebraism and Hellenism" in terms of cultural influence - at least one theme is the cultural role of philosophy - its 'future' ... the video clip reads from the essay's opening paragraph:

"That philosophy died yesterday, since Hegel or Marx, Nietzsche, or Heidegger—and philosophy should still wander toward the meaning of its death—or that it has always lived knowing itself to be dying... that philosophy died one day, within history, or that it has always fed on its own agony, on the violent way it opens history by opposing itself to nonphilosophy, which is its past and its concern, its death and wellspring; that beyond the death, or dying nature, of philosophy, perhaps even because of it, thought still has a future, or even, as is said today, is still entirely to come because of what philosophy has held in store; or, more strangely still, that the future itself has a future—all these are unanswerable questions. By right of birth, and for one time at least, these are problems put to philosophy as problems philosophy cannot resolve."

Derrida's later 'ethical' thought gave reassurance that 'the future itself has a future' ...

("Violence and Metaphysics" can be found in "Writing and Difference" - one of Derrida's earliest and key collection of essays)

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Derrida
• Levinas
• Violence
• And
• Metaphysics
• Post
• Modernism
• Philosophy