Synopses & Reviews
Derrida and the Inheritance of Democracy provides a theoretically rich and accessible account of Derrida's political philosophy. Demonstrating the key role inheritance plays in Derrida's thinking, Samir Haddad develops a general theory of inheritance and shows how it is essential to democratic action. He transforms Derrida's well-known idea of "democracy to come" into active engagement with democratic traditions. Haddad focuses on issues such as hospitality, justice, normativity, violence, friendship, birth, and the nature of democracy as he reads these deeply political writings.
Review
"Samir Haddad demonstrates with force, lucidity, and intelligence that our inheritance of Derrida's work must be centered on Derrida's own thinking of inheritance. Derrida and the Inheritance of Democracy will reshape the way we read Derrida's work, the way we understand its promise, and, especially, the way we make it our own. If, as Derrida argues, an inheritance is never simply given but remains always as a task, then Haddad has lived up to this task in a truly original and responsible way." --Michael Naas, DePaul University
Review
"[A] highly valuable, probing, and critical discussion of normativity in relation to democratic inheritance. For those interested in deconstructive ethics and politics, this is an indispensable book." --Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
Review
"Haddad lays out with unprecedented clarity some key features of Derrida's later thinking on several crucial ethical and political matters, including the very widely misunderstood issue of 'unconditional hospitality.'" --Geoffrey Bennington, Emory University Indiana University Press
Review
"Derrida and the Inheritance of Democracy is an excellent book, advancing an original, thoughtprovoking thesis about one of the most important ideas in the later Derrida's political philosophy. Haddad's argumentation is extraordinarily clear throughout--which is no small feat for a text on Derrida--and grounded in a thorough knowledge of the relevant literature. This book should be accessible to graduate students, although probably not to most undergraduate students. I would recommend it strongly to anyone interested in the later Derrida or in contemporary political philosophy." --SCTIW Review
Review
"[T]he readers of this book will gain significant insight into the Derrida's paradoxical notion of the inheritance of a democracy to come. Haddad's book should therefore be considered an authoritative text on Derrida and democratic theory." --Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy Indiana University Press Indiana University Press
About the Author
Samir Haddad is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University.
Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Derrida's Legacies
1. The Structure of Aporia
2. Derridean Inheritance
3. Inheriting Democracy to Come
4. Questioning Normativity
5. Politics of Friendship as Democratic Inheritance
6. Inheriting Birth
Conclusion: Inheriting Derrida's Legacies
Notes
Bibliography
Index