|
The Animal That Therefore I Am (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy) | 
| Author: Jacques Derrida
Creators: Marie-louis Mallet, David Wills
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $20.00
Buy New: $17.50
You Save: $2.50 (12%)
New (15) Used (1) from $17.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 25882
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.5
ISBN: 082322791X
Dewey Decimal Number: 194
EAN: 9780823227914
ASIN: 082322791X
Publication Date: June 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: unread book
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The Animal That Therefore I Am is the long-awaited translation of the complete text of Jacques Derridas ten-hour address to the 1997 Cerisy conference entitled The Autobiographical Animal, the third of four such colloquia on his work. The book was assembled posthumously on the basis of two published sections, one written and recorded session, and one informal recorded session.The book is at once an affectionate look back over the multiple roles played by animals in Derridas work and a profound philosophical investigation and critique of the relegation of animal life that takes place as a result of the distinctiondating from Descartesbetween man as thinking animal and every other living species. That starts with the very fact of the line of separation drawn between the human and the millions of other species that are reduced to a single the animal. Derrida finds that distinction, or versions of it, surfacing in thinkers as far apart as Descartes, Kant, Heidegger, Lacan, and Levinas, and he dedicates extended analyses tothe question in the work of each of them.The books autobiographical theme intersects with its philosophical analysis through the figures of looking and nakedness, staged in terms of Derridas experience when his cat follows him into the bathroom in the morning. In a classic deconstructive reversal, Derrida asks what this animal sees and thinks when it sees this naked man. Yet the experiences of nakedness and shame also lead all the way back into the mythologies of mans dominion over the beasts and trace a history of how man has systematically displaced onto the animal his own failings or betises. The Animal That Therefore I Am is at times a militant plea and indictment regarding, especially, the modern industrialized treatment of animals. However, Derrida cannot subscribe to a simplistic version of animal rights that fails to follow through, in all its implications, the questions and definitions of life to which he returned in much of his later work.
|
| Customer Reviews:
A great (unfinished) work June 22, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book assembles the entirety of Derrida's 1997 Cerisy address on the topic of that conference (dedicated to discussing his work) "The Autobiographical Animal." That said, it still remains an unbelievable unfinished work. While humorously (and seriously) talking about a cat seeing him naked in the morning in the bathroom, or watching a TV show on a cat, or entering the bedroom while Derrida is with a woman, Derrida outlines the paths along which he might problematize the philosophical (and common-sense) regard for the animal--paths that one can plainly see would have been followed (or, at least, outlined) more extensively in a fuller, lengthier discussion (especially with respect to Heidegger). Nevertheless, Derrida here accomplishes almost too much, giving one a feel for the immensity of the problem of animality within our discourses while at the same time actually modifying elements of those discourses along immensely interesting lines. Those familiar with Derrida's corpus will find many issues or half-thoughts made elsewhere elucidated here--most notably those regarding mechanization or technology, autobiography, sex (both in terms of the erotic act and sexual difference) and life (all somewhat intertwined through a discussion of Descartes' animal-machine)--while one can imagine those more unfamiliar (or those only familiar with *either* the "early" Derrida or the "late" "ethical" Derrida) would find much of interest: keeping with the autobiographical theme of the conference, Derrida recalls much of his corpus and relates what is going on here quite explicitly to all of it. Those also interested in Descartes, Levinas, Heidegger and Lacan (there is an amazing discussion of the mirror stage and the odd "pigeon gonad" passage, and the entire text can be said to be a reading of Lacan's "Subversion of the Subject and Dialectic of Desire") will find this volume really worthwhile.
Two portions of this work have appeared before, but the crucial middle section has not been published. Also included is the wonderful semi-impromptu follow-up, which alone is worth the price of the book. After about nine hours, the address was not able to get to all the issues related to Heidegger. After he was begged for more, Derrida again took the stage at the end of the conference and outlined (though it is extensive in its detail) a reading of Heidegger's (extremely interesting) seminar, *The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics.* Again, this alone is worth the price of the book: engaged, entertaining, somewhat off the cuff, with even more of the surprising and wonderful vitality that pervades the rest of his written out address, what is said here is as pertinent as it is profound.
David Wills', it should be said, also makes an excellent translation--even better than his rendering of *The Gift of Death.* All in all, a great troubler for the set of stagnant interpretations of Derrida here in America: like *On Touching,* Derrida returns to odd issues somewhat more at home in the old phenomenological tradition, but with many twists gained from his extensive forays into issues of writing and his more recent work on ethics or religion. A major work, which should sit alongside some of his more famous volumes: one that--and that this is not at all a fault or even something to regret testifies to the achievement of Derrida and the tenacity of his thought here--would have been (and, in a way, will be) enriched even further with time.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
