Psyche
- 352 pages
- 13 hours of reading
Advances the author's reflections on many issues, such as sexual difference, architecture, negative theology, politics, war, nationalism, and religion.
Jacques Derrida Books
July 15, 1930 – October 8, 2004
Jacques Derrida, the originator of “deconstruction,” provided a critical lens for examining literary and philosophical texts, as well as political structures. While Derrida sometimes lamented the fate of the term “deconstruction,” its widespread adoption highlights the profound influence of his thought across philosophy, literary theory, art, and particularly architectural and political theory. Deconstruction endeavors to rethink the very nature of difference that separates self-reflection, but more crucially, it strives to prevent the worst forms of violence. This pursuit of justice is relentless, acknowledging that perfect justice may ultimately be unattainable.
The Beast and the Sovereign
- 368 pages
- 13 hours of reading
Focuses in on questions of force, right, justice, and philosophical interpretations of the limits between man and animal.
Psyche: Inventions of the Other
- 460 pages
- 17 hours of reading
Psyche: Inventions of the Other is the first publication in English of the twenty-eight essay collection Jacques Derrida published in two volumes in 1998 and 2003. In Volume I, Derrida advances his reflection on many topics: psychoanalysis, theater, translation, literature, representation, racism, and nuclear war, among others. The essays in this volume also carry on Derrida's engagement with a number of key thinkers and writers: Barthes, Benjamin, de Man, Flaubert, Freud, Heidegger, Lacoue-Labarthe, Levinas, and Ponge. Included in this volume are new or revised translations of seminal essays (for example, "Psyche: Invention of the Other," "The Retrait of Metaphor," "At This Very Moment in This Work Here I Am," "Tours de Babel" and "Racism's Last Word"), as well as three essays that appear here in English for the first time.
While much has been written against the death penalty, the author contends that Western philosophy is massively, if not always obviously, complicit with a logic in which a sovereign state has the right to take a life.
The Death Penalty, Volume II
- 304 pages
- 11 hours of reading
The second volume of Jacques Derrida's exploration of the death penalty delves into Kant's justification of capital punishment, deconstructing his arguments and revealing significant contradictions. Derrida critiques the "anesthesial logic" surrounding the death penalty, intertwining themes of cruelty and pain through various philosophical texts. He argues that the rationality behind the death penalty reflects an illusory control over mortality. Set against the backdrop of a pivotal moment in U.S. history regarding capital punishment, this analysis aims to contribute meaningfully to ongoing debates.
Memoires for Paul de Man
- 263 pages
- 10 hours of reading
A tribute to one of the fathers of deconstruction as well as an extended essay on memory, death, and friendship.
On Touching-Jean-Luc Nancy
- 400 pages
- 14 hours of reading
This book, written out of Derrida's long-standing friendship with Jean-Luc Nancy, examines the central place accorded to the sense of touch in the Western philosophical tradition.
The Work of Mourning
- 272 pages
- 10 hours of reading
Artaud the Moma
- 112 pages
- 4 hours of reading
One of Derrida's most extraordinarily deep and and virtuosic texts and one of the best ever written about Artaud. Denis Hollier, New York University