Synopses & Reviews
How to interpret Derrida's work now after so much commentary has been devoted to his thought, and his own astonishing productivity has come to an end? In this groundbreaking collection, Joshua Kates argues that we must begin from a different frame than Derrida himself provides, by inserting his work into already existing fields, by "fielding Derrida." Is Derrida a skeptic? Does he subscribe to a death of meaning (and the "I") at the hands of a sign? Is his thought at all proximate to contemporary Marxian/post-Marxist thinking? Thanks to placing Derrida's texts in broader fields (such as Husserlian phenomenology and analytic philosophy of language) and subsequently nuancing what such comparisons yield, Kates's work capture Derrida's stances on these and other questions with a new concreteness and an unprecedented scope, forging links to vital debates across the humanities today.
Review
"Offers creative and well-defended new interpretations of Derrida's familiar texts."
Review
New and previously published writings that, among other things, link the French philosopher to Husserlian phenomenology.
Kates has been producing the deepest, most original, and most even-handed treatment available of the relation between Derrida's thought and that of Husserl This new book opens new ways to think about both; it also introduces intriguing new perspectives on the Derrida-Husserl nexus through probing discussions of Jacob Klein and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. It is an important contribution to the evolving understanding of Derrida's place in the history of modern philosophy.-Henry Staten
This intensely philosophical and well-written book addresses the challenge of the legacy of Derridean thought, and what this thought holds for the future, by assessing Derrida's actual contributions to a variety of problems and debates in the contemporary humanities. Once again Kates' profound familiarity with Husserlian thought proves to be a true asset that makes this book a powerful and engaging work to read.-Rodolphe Gasche
Synopsis
How are we to interpret Jacques Derrida's writings now, after so much commentary has been devoted to his thought and his own astonishing productivity has come to an end? In this groundbreaking book, JoshuaKates extends his earlier contextualizing of Derrida's work in relation to Husserl by arguing that we must begin from a frame different from that provided by Derrida himself. His work must be inserted into alreadyexisting fields, thus fielding Derrida.By placing Derrida's texts in the context of broader fields (such as interpretations of modernity and analytic philosophy of language), Kates captures Derrida's stances with a new concreteness and an unprecedentedscope, forging links to vital debates across the humanities today.
About the Author
JOSHUA KATES is Associate Professor of English at Indiana University and the author of
Essential History: Jacques Derrida and the Development of Deconstruction.