What happens when something happens? In Thinking the Event, senior continental philosophy scholar François Raffoul undertakes a philosophical inquiry into what constitutes an event as event, its very eventfulness: not what happens or why it happens, but that it happens, and what "happening" means. If, as Leibniz posited, it is true that nothing happens without a reason, does this principle of reason have a reason? For Raffoul, the event always breaks the demands of rational thought. Bringing together philosophical (...) insights from Heidegger, Derrida, Nancy, and Marion, Raffoul shows how the event, in its disruptive unpredictability, always exceeds causality, subjectivity, and reason. It is that "pure event," each time happening outside or without reason, which remains to be thought, and which is the focus of this work. In the final movement of the book, Raffoul takes on questions about the inappropriability of the event and the implications this carries for ethical and political considerations when thinking the event. In the wake of the exhaustion of traditional metaphysics, the notion of the event comes to the fore in an unprecedented way, with key implications for philosophy, ontology, ethics, and theories of selfhood. (shrink)

Exploring responsibility in the works of Nietzsche, Sartre, Levinas, Heidegger, and Derrida, Raffoul identifies decisive moments in the development of the concept, retrieves its origins, and explores new reflections on it.

Against traditional interpretations, which claim either that Heidegger has rendered all accounts of subjectivity-and consequently of ethics-impossible, or, on the contrary, that Heidegger merely renews the modern metaphysics of subjectivity, Raffoul demonstrates how Heidegger's destruction/deconstruction of the subject opens the space for a radically nonsubjectivistic formulation of human being. Raffoul reconstitutes and analyzes Heidegger's debate with the great thinkers of subjectivity, in order to show that Heidegger's "destructive" reading of the modern metaphysics of subjectivity is, in fact, a (...) positive reappropriation of the ontological foundations of the subject. Raffoul's recasting of Heidegger's work on human subjectivity should prove indispensable in future debates on the fate of the subject in the postmodern era. (shrink)

Derrida states at the beginning of Geschlecht III that at stake is the question of sexual difference, one that is referred in Heidegger’s 1953 essay on Trakl to a twofoldness that precedes the opposition of sexual duality, a duality which, according to Derrida, neutralizes sexual difference. I follow the development of what Derrida also called the “dream” of “another sexual difference,” one that would not be ruled by the opposition of the two. Derrida’s guiding interpretation in Geschlecht III is that (...) Heidegger privileges “gathering” and the reference to the “one” in this thinking of difference, and of sexual difference, thereby neutralizing difference. Drawing a contrast between difference as polysemy and difference as dissemination, I attempt in what follows to discuss Derrida’s interpretation, raising questions concerning some of his readings with respect to the motifs of dispersion, dissemination, polysemy, and gathering. (shrink)

Jean Beaufret n'est pas simplement un « disciple » de Martin Heidegger. C'est un penseur « de pointe » qui, en 1945, prend le risque de redonner du sens à une « raison » atomisée par une guerre totale, en s'engageant dans une pensée « autre », qui rétrocède vers la provenance grecque de la ratio. C'est le sens de son « dialogue » avec M. Heidegger. Jean Beaufret was not merely a « disciple » of Martin Heidegger. He was (...) a « forward » thinker, who, in 1945, was bold enough to rethink a reason pulverized in a total war, by engaging himself in an « other » thought, which undertakes a step back towards the Greek origin of ratio. And such is the meaning of his « dialogue » with M. Heidegger. (shrink)

Derrida often insists that ethics must be the experience and encounter of a certain impossible. A proposition all the more troubling, as it is proposed by Derrida in the context of a return precisely to the conditions of possibility of ethics. It will appear that returning to the possibilities of ethics implies a return to its limits, to its aporias, which are both constitutive and incapacitating, possibilizing and impossibilizing. The purpose of this paper is to begin exploring this aporetic structure (...) of ethics and to identify how it is tied to the impossible. I will pursue this inquiry by reconstituting how Derrida appropriates Heidegger's expression of "possibility of the impossible," and by reconstituting the aporias of the law, of moral decision, of responsibility, and of an ethics of hospitality as welcome of the event of otherness. (shrink)

_Philosophical reflections on the phenomenon of globalization._.

"French Interpretations of Heidegger undertakes a philosophical engagement with the work of the most significant and creative figures involved in the reception ...

I propose in this paper to explore Heidegger's thought of selfhood in Contributions to Philosophy through a close reading of key paragraphs. It is often assumed that after the "turning" in his thinking, when Heidegger engages in a thought of Ereignis no longer centered on human Dasein as the locus of the meaning of being, the reference to selfhood would fade away. However, a close reading of the Contributions reveals that a renewed thinking of selfhood, of what Heidegger calls "self-being" (...) , is enacted precisely at the same time that the subjectivistic understanding of the self is more radically abandoned. I attempt to delineate how Heidegger undertakes to rethink selfhood no longer from the paradigm of the ego, but from the event of Ereignis , or enowning. (shrink)

_Examines the historical context and contemporary relevance of facticity._.

Derrida insiste souvent sur le fait que l’éthique (« si elle existe », comme il l’ajoute souvent) doit être l’épreuve, l’expérience et la traversée d’une aporie, d’un certain impossible. Une formule d’autant plus troublante qu’elle s’énonce chez Derrida à la faveur, précisément, d’un retour aux conditions de possibilités de l’éthique. Mais remonter aux possibilités de l’éthique signifie immédiatement : faire retour à ses limites, à ses apories, qui sont à la fois constitutives et incapacitantes, possibilisantes et impossibilisantes. Nous nous proposons (...) d’explorer cette structure aporétique de l’éthique, de repérer ce qui la noue à l’im-possible, en suivant l’appropriation par Derrida de l’expression heideggérienne « possibilité de l’impossible », et en reconstituant les apories de la loi, de la décision morale, de la responsabilité, et de l’éthique de l’hospitalité comme accueil de l’événement de l’arrivant. (shrink)

Martin Heidegger is one of the twentieth century's most important philosophers, and now also one of the most contentious as revelations of the extent of his Nazism continue to surface. His ground-breaking works have had a hugely significant impact on contemporary thought through their reception, appropriation and critique. His thought has influenced philosophers as diverse as Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Arendt, Adorno, Gadamer, Levinas, Derrida and Foucault, among others. In addition to his formative role in philosophical movements such as phenomenology, hermeneutics and (...) existentialism, structuralism and post-structuralism, deconstruction and post-modernism, Heidegger has had a transformative effect on diverse fields of inquiry including political theory, literary criticism, theology, gender theory, technology and environmental studies. The Bloomsbury Companion to Heidegger is the definitive textbook to Heidegger's life and work, in fifty-nine original essays written by an international team of leading Heidegger scholars. This new edition presents comprehensive coverage of Heidegger life and contexts, sources, influences and encounters, key writings, major themes and topics, and reception and influence, and includes a chapter addressing the controversial Black Notebooks, National Socialism, and Antisemitism. This is the ideal research tool for anyone studying or working in the field of Heidegger Studies today. (shrink)

Derrida often writes that responsibility is and can only be the undergoing of an aporia, an “experience of the impossible,” as if responsibility became possible from its own impossibility: “The condition of possibility of this thing called responsibility is a certain experience and experiment of the possibility of the impossible”. Heidegger develops an important thought of responsibility, developed in the early works as well as in the later writings. Responsibility will thus have to find another origin than that of the (...) free autonomous subject. Ethical responsibility is thus a matter of invention, an invention of the impossible, as it were, and not the application of a rule. In fact, there are no rules, no technique, for such responsibility. As we saw, for Derrida, responsibility is and can only be an experience of the impossible. Responsible decision is thus assigned to a “secret.”. (shrink)

Jen-Luc Nancy’s thinking of the event stems from his understanding of being as based on no principle, ground or essence. Nothing preexists the event of being, no principle, arche or prior substance. With such a statement, a thinking of the event emerges: not preceded by any principle or ground, being is nothing but the event of itself. In turn, the event is no longer anchored in a principle that itself would not be happening. Thus, preceded by nothing and grounded in (...) no essence, the event of being can only come as a surprise. The event is always the bringing forth of the unprecedented: the event always comes as a surprise. I first show how Nancy thinks the event from the very motif of the surprise, indeed claiming that an event is surprising or it is not an event. In a second part, I explore Nancy’s thinking of the event of the world, understood as creation ex nihilo. Ultimately, I show that Nancy understands the eventfulness of the event in terms of the essencelessness of existence. (shrink)

L’auteur remet en question le postulat lévinassien de I’equivalence du même et de I’être dans la pensée de Heidegger afin de repenser, de façon plus radicale, le rapport à I’autre, et ainsi jeter les fondements d’une “éthique originaire”. Selon I’auteur, la responsabilité éthique se trouve inscrite dans I’essence même du Dasein, lequel ne peut être défini, comme I’aurait fait malgré lui Lévinas, à partird’une égologie.The author challenges Levinas’s postulate of the equivalence between the Same and Being in Heidegger’s thought in (...) order to recast more radically the relationship to the Other and thus lay the foundations of an “original ethic ”. According to the author, the ethical responsibility is inscribed in the very essence of Dasein, which cannot be defined from the perspective of an egology, as Lévinas seems to have done in spite of himself. (shrink)

Derrida's relation to Heidegger can fairly be described as ‘complicated,’ and marked by a deep ambivalence. Although he has always recognized his debt towards Heidegger, Derrida has also insisted on his profound allergy towards some aspects of Heidegger’s thought. The reader is thus often faced with this ambivalence in Derrida's writings, which offer, on the one hand, uncannily precise and insightful readings of Heidegger's texts, with on the other hand less than generous interpretations. We find a Derrida tout contre Heidegger, (...) at once entirely against Heidegger, but also right up close to Heidegger. I will explore this debate between Derrida and Heidegger by focusing on the motifs of deconstruction, presence, the proper and the inappropriable. (shrink)

Through a close reading of Derrida’s recently published Adieu à EmmanueI Lévinas, the author undertakes to reflect on the significance of the expression “subject of the welcome,“ which Derrida retrieves from Levinas’s work. The author singles out four essential propositions which could define this hospitable subjcet: 1. The welcome of the other is a welcome of an infinite; 2. the welcome of the other is a genitive subjeetive; 3. the welcome is not a gathering; 4. the host is a guest. (...) Those four characteristics manifest a peculiar ex-propriation of the subject in Levinas’s work, on whieh the author reflects in two ways: first, by underlying Levinas’s reversal of the tradition of autonomous subjectivity; second, by attempting to think together the position and deposition of the subject through recourse to what Derrida calls the “ex-appropriation” of the subject.À partir d’une lecture de Adieu à Emmanuel Lévinas de Jaeques Derrida, l’auteur s’interroge sur la signification de l’expression “sujet de I’accueil”, une expression que Jaeques Derrida commente dans ce livre. L’auteur déploie quatre propositions qui pourraient cerner le sens de ce sujet hospitalier. 1. I’accueil de l’autre est l’accueil d’un infini; 2. l’accueil de l’autre est un subjectif génitif; 3. l’accueil n’est pas un recueil; 4. I’hôte est un invité. Ces quatre caractéristiques manifestent une singulière ex-propriation du sujet dans I’oeuvre d’Emanuel Lévinas, une ex-propriation sur laquelle l’auteur réfléchit de deux façons: premiérement, en relevant un renversement de la tradition de la subjcetivité autonome chez Lévinas; deuxièmement, en s’efforçant de penser enselnble la position et déposition du sujet à partir de ce que Jacques Derrida appelle “I”ex-appropriation” du sujet. (shrink)

This book is a close reading of Jacques Lacan’s seminal essay, “The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious or Reason Since Freud, ” selected for the particular light it casts on Lacan’s complex relation to linguistics, psychoanalysis, and philosophy. It clarifies the way Lacan renews or transforms the psychoanalytic field, through his diversion of Saussure’s theory of the sign, his radicalization of Freud’s fundamental concepts, and his subversion of dominant philosophical values. The authors argue, however, that Lacan’s discourse is (...) marked by a deep ambiguity: while he invents a new “language,” he nonetheless maintains the traditional metaphysical motifs of systemacity, foundation, and truth. (shrink)

In Four Seminars, Heidegger reviews the entire trajectory of his thought and offers unique perspectives on fundamental aspects of his work. First published in French in 1976, these seminars were translated into German with Heidegger’s approval and reissued in 1986 as part of his Gesamtausgabe, volume 15. Topics considered include the Greek understanding of presence, the ontological difference, the notion of system in German Idealism, the power of naming, the problem of technology, danger, and the event. Heidegger’s engagements with his (...) philosophical forebears—Parmenides, Heraclitus, Kant, and Hegel—continue in surprising dialogues with his contemporaries—Husserl, Marx, and Wittgenstein. While providing important insights into how Heidegger conducted his lectures, these seminars show him in his maturity reflecting back on his philosophical path. An important text for understanding contemporary philosophical debates, Four Seminars provides extraordinarily rich material for students and scholars of Heidegger. (shrink)

Brings together parts of the Lacanian discourse that have remained isolated in their respective research areas and outlines the shape of Lacanian discourse, showing the relation of Lacan's thought to philosophy, science, literature and aesthetics, gender and sexuality, and psychoanalytic theory.

Dominique Janicaud claimed that every French intellectual movement—from existentialism to psychoanalysis—was influenced by Martin Heidegger. This translation of Janicaud’s landmark work, Heidegger en France, details Heidegger’s reception in philosophy and other humanistic and social science disciplines. Interviews with key French thinkers such as Françoise Dastur, Jacques Derrida, Éliane Escoubas, Jean Greisch, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Jean-Luc Marion, and Jean-Luc Nancy are included and provide further reflection on Heidegger’s relationship to French philosophy. An intellectual undertaking of authoritative scope, this work furnishes a thorough (...) history of the French reception of Heidegger’s thought. (shrink)

_First English translation of Nasio's groundbreaking work on the Oedipus complex._.

_First English translation of Nasio's groundbreaking work on the Oedipus complex._.

Pas moins de trois ouvrages ont récemment marqué en France le paysage de la recherche sur Heidegger, témoignant d’un travail de fond, amorcé et en cours, qui vise à en appréhender la pensée en se confrontant à ce que peut avoir d’inouï, tout aussi neuf qu’irréductible, la tentative faite pour se rapporter à l’événement dont elle-même...

Leading scholars address the ethical and practical dimensions of Heidegger's thought.

Common sense has it that animals matter considerably less than humans; the welfare and suffering of a cow, a chicken or a fish are important but not as much as the welfare and suffering of a human being. Most animal ethicists reject this “speciesist” view as mere prejudice. In their opinion, there is no difference between humans and other animals that could justify such unequal consideration. In the opposite camp, advocates of speciesism have long tried to identify a difference that (...) would fit the bill, but they have consistently seemed to fail. In light of this, some naturally began to appeal to Moorean arguments: the case against speciesism must be flawed somehow, these philosophers maintain, because speciesism is supported by a strong and widespread intuition. This chapter draws on recent findings in social psychology to criticize this defence of speciesism. It argues that the strong and widespread intuition that humans count more than animals is epistemically defective because it is causally shaped by a pair of irrelevant influences: cognitive dissonance and tribalism. Accordingly, it is no suitable basis for a Moorean argument. (shrink)

We propose a new approach to the study of introspection. Instead of asking what form introspection actually takes in humans or other animals, we ask what forms it could take, in natural or artificial minds. What are the dimensions along which forms of introspection could vary? This is a relatively unexplored question, but it is one that has the potential to open new avenues of study and reveal new connections between existing ones. It may, for example, focus attention on possible (...) forms of introspection radically different from the human one and help to integrate competing theories of human introspection in a non-adversarial manner. We introduce and motivate the project, provide a preliminary mapping of the space of possible forms of introspection, and sketch a programme for interdisciplinary research on the topic. (shrink)