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Life Death

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( 22 ratings, 5 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Life Death by Jacques Derrida is a profound exploration of the intertwined concepts of life and death through the lens of deconstruction. The book analyses the ways these themes intersect with language, identity, and existence, offering readers a deep dive into Derrida's philosophical thoughts. This work extends his ideas on the fragile boundaries between living and dying, encouraging a reconsideration of how these concepts shape our understanding of being.
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Format: Hardback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you are intrigued by deconstructionist thought and enjoy exploring intricate philosophical discussions. Jacques Derrida's work delves into themes of existence and mortality, offering profound insights that challenge conventional ideas and provoke deep reflection.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description
The seventh in our series of Derrida's seminars, Life Death provides interdisciplinary reflections on the relationship of life and death—now in paperback.

One of Jacques Derrida’s most provocative works, Life Death deconstructs a deeply rooted dichotomy of Western thought: life and death. In rethinking the relationship between life and death, Derrida undertakes a multi-disciplinary analysis of a range of topics across philosophy, linguistics, and the life sciences.

Derrida gave this seminar over fourteen sessions between 1975 and 1976 at the École normale supérieure in Paris to prepare students for the agrégation, a notoriously competitive exam. The theme for the exam that year was “Life and Death,” but Derrida made a critical modification to the title by dropping the coordinating conjunction. The resulting title of Life Death poses a philosophical question about the close relationship between life and death.

Through close readings of Freudian psychoanalysis, the philosophy of Nietzsche and Heidegger, French geneticist François Jacob, and epistemologist Georges Canguilhem, Derrida argues that death must be considered neither as the opposite of life nor as the truth or fulfilment of it, but rather as that which both limits life and makes it possible.

Derrida thus not only questions traditional understandings of the relationship between life and death but also ultimately develops a new way of thinking about what he calls “life death.”

Series: Seminars of Jacques Derrida

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  • Heidegger
    Few philosophers held greater fascination for Jacques Derrida than Martin Heidegger, and in this book we get an extended look at Derrida’s first real encounters with him. Delivered over nine sessions in 1964 and 1965 at the École Normale Supérieure, these lectures offer a glimpse of the young Derrida first coming to terms with the German philosopher and his magnum...
    Paperback
    $5699
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Life Death
    The seventh in our series of Derrida's seminars, Life Death provides interdisciplinary reflections on the relationship of life and death—now in paperback. One of Jacques Derrida’s most provocative works, Life Death deconstructs a deeply rooted dichotomy of Western thought: life and death. In rethinking the relationship between life and death, Derrida undertakes a multi-disciplinary analysis of a range of topics...
    Hardback
    $9399
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Theory and Practice
    Now in paperback, nine lectures from Jacques Derrida that challenge the influential Marxist distinction between thinking and acting. Theory and Practice is a series of nine lectures that Jacques Derrida delivered at the École Normale Supérieure in 1976 and 1977. The topic of “theory and practice” was associated above all with Marxist discourse and particularly the influential interpretation of Marx...
    Hardback
    $7299
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Life Death by Jacques Derrida is a profound work that delves into complex themes, exploring the connections between biology, genetics, and philosophy through the lens of thinkers like Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Freud. The translation is praised for its clarity and faithfulness, making Derrida's intricate analysis accessible. The seminar offers a deconstructive critique of scientific models and revisits Nietzsche's and Freud's ideas on life, presenting them in novel and thought-provoking ways.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780226699516

Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 22 September 2020

Country: United States

Imprint: University of Chicago Press

Contributors:

  • Edited by Peggy Kamuf
  • Edited by Pascale-Anne Brault
  • Translated by Pascale-Anne Brault
  • Translated by Michael Naas
  • Edited by Pascale-Anne Brault
  • Edited by Peggy Kamuf

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 152.0mm

Height: 229.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 328

About the Author

Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) was director of studies at the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales, Paris, and professor of humanities at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of many books published by the University of Chicago Press. Pascale-Anne Brault is professor of French at DePaul University and is the translator of several books by Derrida. Peggy Kamuf is professor emerita of French and Italian and comparative literature at the University of Southern California. She has written, edited, or translated many books, by Derrida and others, and is coeditor of the series of Derrida's seminars at the University of Chicago Press. Michael Naas is professor of philosophy at DePaul University and is the author of several books, most recently Plato and the Invention of Life.

Also by Jacques Derrida

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  • Before the Law
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  • Clang
    A new translation of Derrida's groundbreaking juxtaposition of Hegel and Genet, forcing two incompatible discourses into dialogue with each other Jacques Derrida's famously challenging book Glas puts the practice of philosophy and the very acts of writing and reading to the test. Formatted with parallel texts, its left column discusses G. W. F. Hegel and its right column engages Jean...
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  • Dissemination
    In Dissemination - more than in any previous work - Derrida weaves a complex pattern of puns, verbal echoes and allusions, intended to 'deconstruct' both the pretension of criticism to tell the truth about literature, and the pretension of philosophy to be the literature of truth." New Statesman Jacques Derrida (1930-) is Professor of Philosophy at École Normale Supérieure, Paris....
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  • Dissemination
    First published in 1972, Dissemination contains three of Derrida's most central and seminal works: 'Plato's Pharmacy', 'The Double Session', and 'Dissemination'. The essays present a re-evaluation of the logic of meaning and the function of writing in Western discourse. They explore the relationship and interplay between language, literature, and philosophy. The text includes a substantial introduction and additional notes on...
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  • Heidegger
    Few philosophers held greater fascination for Jacques Derrida than Martin Heidegger, and in this book we get an extended look at Derrida’s first real encounters with him. Delivered over nine sessions in 1964 and 1965 at the École Normale Supérieure, these lectures offer a glimpse of the young Derrida first coming to terms with the German philosopher and his magnum...
    Paperback
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    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Life Death
    The seventh in our series of Derrida's seminars, Life Death provides interdisciplinary reflections on the relationship of life and death—now in paperback. One of Jacques Derrida’s most provocative works, Life Death deconstructs a deeply rooted dichotomy of Western thought: life and death. In rethinking the relationship between life and death, Derrida undertakes a multi-disciplinary analysis of a range of topics...
    Paperback
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    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Perjury and Pardon, Volume I
    An inquiry into the problematic of perjury, or lying, and forgiveness from one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. “One only ever asks forgiveness for what is unforgivable.” From this contradiction begins Perjury and Pardon, Volume I, a two-year series of seminars given by Jacques Derrida at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris...
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  • Perjury and Pardon, Volume II
    An exploration of the political dimensions of forgiveness and repentance from Jacques Derrida. Perjury and Pardon is a two-year seminar series given by Jacques Derrida at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris during the late 1990s. In these sessions, Derrida focuses on the philosophical, ethical, juridical, and political stakes of the concept of responsibility. His primary...
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  • Theory and Practice
    Now in paperback, nine lectures from Jacques Derrida that challenge the influential Marxist distinction between thinking and acting. Theory and Practice is a series of nine lectures that Jacques Derrida delivered at the École Normale Supérieure in 1976 and 1977. The topic of “theory and practice” was associated above all with Marxist discourse and particularly the influential interpretation of Marx...
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    $7299
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Theory and Practice
    Now in paperback, nine lectures from Jacques Derrida that challenge the influential Marxist distinction between thinking and acting. Theory and Practice is a series of nine lectures that Jacques Derrida delivered at the École Normale Supérieure in 1976 and 1977. The topic of "theory and practice" was associated above all with Marxist discourse and particularly the influential interpretation of Marx...
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  • Thinking Out of Sight
    Jacques Derrida remains a leading voice of philosophy, his works still resonating today—and for more than three decades, one of the main sites of Derridean deconstruction has been the arts. Collecting nineteen texts spanning from 1979 to 2004, Thinking Out of Sight brings to light Derrida’s most inventive ideas about the making of visual artworks. The book is divided into...
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  • Hospitality, Volume II
    Jacques Derrida explores the ramifications of what we owe to others. Hospitality, Volume II reproduces a two-year seminar series delivered by Jacques Derrida at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris between 1995 and 1997. In these lectures, Derrida asks a series of related questions about responsibility and "the foreigner": How do we welcome or turn away...
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