Bloomsbury Derrida: Profanations (Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy): 49

This is a re-appraisal of the work of Jacques Derrida as decisively informed by a profane, atheistic and egalitarian trajectory. "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 profane and mortal 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. The 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. The book presents a theorisation of deconstruction as profane, atheistic and egalitarian. The argument 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. This has far-reaching ethical and political consequences. If nothing sustains itself as separate, exclusive or sacrosanct, then nothing can sustain the implementation of its own hierarchy. Pursuing the logic of profanation, O'Connor argues that Derrida annuls the possibility of asserting hierarchical structures. "Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy" presents cutting-edge scholarship in the field of modern European thought. The wholly original arguments, perspectives and research findings in titles in this series make it an important and stimulating resource for students and academics from across the discipline. Review Continuum should be applauded for publishing it. On the savannah of academic publishing, there are, of course, books that are great beasts, audible to all as they roar; there are herds of textbooks, to be hunted and fed upon; and then there are smaller creatures, often unglamorous and seen only by a few but that are absolutely essential to the ecosystem. Without them the whole savannah becomes stale and lifeless: with them it calls out to life. This book is one of those: less a profanation, perhaps, than a provocation. --Times Higher Education About the Author Patrick O'Connor is a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Philosophy and Politics at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.