Ethics-Politics-Subjectivity: Essays on Derrida, Levinas & Contemporary French Thought

Simon Critchley

Verso Books, Jun 9, 2009 - Philosophy - 316 pages

In Ethics–Politics–Subjectivity, Simon Critchley takes up three questions at the centre of contemporary theoretical debate: What is ethical experience? What can be said of the subject who has this experience? What, if any, is the relation of ethical experience to politics? Through spirited confrontations with major thinkers, such as Lacan, Nancy, Rorty, and, in particular, Levinas and Derrida, Critchley finds answers in a nuanced “ethics of finitude” and defends the political possibilities of deconstruction. Democracy, economics, friendship, and technology are all considered anew in Critchley’s bold excursions on the meaning and value of recent French philosophy.

About the author

Simon Critchley is Hans Jonas Professor at the New School for Social Research, and a part-time professor of philosophy at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. His many books include Infinitely Demanding, Ethics–Politics–Subjectivity and, most recently, The Book of Dead Philosophers.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Ethics-Politics-Subjectivity: Essays on Derrida, Levinas & Contemporary French Thought; Radical Thinkers
• Author: Simon Critchley
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Verso Books, 2009
• ISBN: 1844673510, 9781844673513
• Length: 316 pages
• Subjects: Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy; Philosophy / Political