Derrida Profanations

Derrida: Profanations

Derrida: Profanations presents a re-appraisal of Jacques Derrida's deconstruction. If philosophy articulates what it means to be human, then deconstruction, which Patrick O'Connor argues consigns all existence to a mortal, profane and worldly life remains radically philosophical. The assertion demands an analysis of Derrida's radicalisation of the key philosophers who influenced him, as well as a rebuttal of theological accounts of deconstruction. This book closely examines how the phenomenological lineage is received in deconstruction, especially the relation between deconstruction and Derrida's radical readings of Hegel, Husserl, Levinas and Heidegger. This book presents a theorisation of deconstruction as profane, atheistic and egalitarian. It reveals how deconstruction holds the resources to think ontology as a multiplicity of worlds through demonstrates the ways in which Derrida expresses a 'phenomenology' which disjoints humans' orientation to the world. Deconstruction is characterized as radically hubristic. For deconstruction, nothing is sacred. If nothing sustains itself as separate, exclusive or sacrosanct, then nothing can sustain the implementation of its own hierarchy.

Derrida: Profanations

Derrida and Legal Philosophy

Among the last generation of continental philosophers Derrida stands out as the most jurisprudential of thinkers. His early work on literary texts was already focused on laws of genre, on being before the law, and upon the legality of speech acts. His later work on the violent foundations of authority and on the force of law further propelled deconstruction into legal studies. This volume traces the path of Derrida's original and provocative legal insights and also maps the geographical and jurisdictional passages of his ideas.