Derrida: Metaphysics, Misc

This monograph uses deconstruction—a philosophical movement originated by Jacques Derrida—to read the most authoritative book in Judaism: the Talmud. Examining deconstruction in comparison with Kant’s and Hegel’s philosophies, the volume argues that the movement opens an innovative debate on Jewish Law. -/- First, the monograph interprets deconstruction within the major streams of continental philosophy; then, it criticizes many aspects of Foucault’s and Agamben’s philosophy, rejecting their notion of law. On these premises, the research delivers a close examination of many fundamental (...) aspects of the Talmud. Consequently, it provides a short history of Rabbinic literature, a history of the dissemination of the Talmud from Babylon to Northern France, and an analysis of Talmudic vocabulary from a deconstructive perspective. Each key concept of the Talmud is analysed according to the deconstructive dialectics between orality and writing. Closing with a comparison between the Talmud and Derrida’s most enigmatic text, Glas, the study argues that deconstruction dismantles the traditional notion of the Talmud to outline a new approach to Jewish Law. -/- Reading the Talmud through deconstruction, this new angle makes the volume an essential resource for students and scholars interested in Jewish studies, continental philosophy, and the Middle East. (shrink)

Es ist bekannt, dass Jacques Derrida Hegel als einen der radikalsten Vertreter jener Metaphysik der Präsenz beschrieben hat, die es zu dekonstruieren gilt, und zugleich zugestanden hat, dass Hegel wie kein anderer eben jene Irreduzibilität der Differenz gedacht hat, die Derrida durch die Dekonstruktion der metaphysischen Tradition zur Geltung bringen will. Derridas Verhältnis zu Hegel kann also gar nicht anders als kompliziert sein. Es ist voller innerer Spannungen, die dringend nach näherer Klärung verlangen, die die Literatur zu Derrida bisher aber (...) meist nur punktuell geliefert hat. Auf eine grundlegende und umfassende Klärung zielt nun Johannes-Georg Schüleins Studie zu Metaphysik und ihrer Kritik bei Hegel und Derrida. (shrink)

In recent European philosophy, and especially in Heidegger, Arendt, Derrida, and Badiou, the distinction between the ordinary and the extraordinary, or between normality and “event,” has played a very prominent role. In the present paper, I raise a challenge to this distinction, a challenge inspired by Deleuze’s conception of repetition and difference. Is it not the case that every occurrence in some ways reproduces and in some ways deviates from the past, such that nothing is entirely extraordinary and nothing completely (...) normal? The purpose of the paper is to examine whether the ordinary/extraordinary distinction—or the notion of event, respectively—can be defended against this challenge, i.e., whether it can be given a rigorous definition. Drawing on and departing from the named philosophers, I show that there are three alternative responses—the route of subjective experience, of transcendence, and of negation—and assess their respective merits. (shrink)