The seventh in our series of Derrida's seminars, Life Death provides
interdisciplinary reflections on the relationship of life and
death—now in paperback. One of Jacques Derrida’s most provocative
works, Life Death deconstructs a deeply rooted dichotomy of Western
thought: life and death. In rethinking the relationship between life
and death, Derrida undertakes a multi-disciplinary analysis of a range
of topics across philosophy, linguistics, and the life sciences.
Derrida gave this seminar over fourteen sessions between 1975 and 1976
at the École normale supérieure in Paris to prepare students for the
agrégation, a notoriously competitive exam. The theme for the exam
that year was “Life and Death,” but Derrida made a critical
modification to the title by dropping the coordinating conjunction.
The resulting title of Life Death poses a philosophical question about
the close relationship between life and death. Through close readings
of Freudian psychoanalysis, the philosophy of Nietzsche and
Heidegger, French geneticist François Jacob, and epistemologist
Georges Canguilhem, Derrida argues that death must be considered
neither as the opposite of life nor as the truth or fulfillment of it,
but rather as that which both limits life and makes it possible.
Derrida thus not only questions traditional understandings of the
relationship between life and death but also ultimately develops a new
way of thinking about what he calls “life death.”
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780226701141
Publisert
2020
Utgiver
Vendor
University of Chicago Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter