The Young Derrida and French Philosophy, 1945–1968 (Ideas in Context)
Cambridge University Press, 10/13/2011
EAN 9781107009677, ISBN10: 1107009677
Hardcover, 350 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm
Language: English
In this powerful study Edward Baring sheds fresh light on Jacques Derrida, one of the most influential yet controversial intellectuals of the twentieth century. Reading Derrida from a historical perspective and drawing on new archival sources, The Young Derrida and French Philosophy shows how Derrida's thought arose in the closely contested space of post-war French intellectual life, developing in response to Sartrian existentialism, religious philosophy and the structuralism that found its base at the École Normale Supérieure. In a history of the philosophical movements and academic institutions of post-war France, Baring paints a portrait of a community caught between humanism and anti-humanism, providing a radically new interpretation of the genesis of deconstruction and of one of the most vibrant intellectual moments of modern times.
Introduction
Part I. Derrida Post-Existentialist
1. Humanist pretensions
Catholics, Communists and Sartre's struggle for existentialism in post-war France
2. Derrida's 'Christian' existentialism
3. Normalization
the École Normale Supérieure and Derrida's turn to Husserl
4. Genesis as a problem
Derrida reading Husserl
5. The God of mathematics
Derrida and the origin of geometry
Part II. Between Phenomenology and Structuralism
6. A history of différance
7. L'ambiguité du concours
the deconstruction of commentary and interpretation in Speech and Phenomena
8. The ends of man
reading and writing at the ENS
Epilogue.
'In The Young Derrida, we find a careful reconstruction of the intellectual and political climate in which Jacques Derrida developed his famous idea of deconstruction. In particular, Baring shows us how the development of deconstruction is involved in the history of humanism in postwar France going up to the May '68 uprisings. Indeed, Baring's readings of Derrida's early books on Husserl's phenomenology are exemplary. With an elegance rarely seen, Edward Baring has managed to weave cultural history with philosophy. The Young Derrida is a magnificent book.' Leonard Lawlor, Sparks Professor of Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University