Deconstructing the Death Penalty: Derrida's Seminars and the New Abolitionism, 2018
In the second volume of the Death Penalty Seminars Derrida establishes a relation between capital... more In the second volume of the Death Penalty Seminars Derrida establishes a relation between capital punishment and reason itself, declaring that the question of the death penalty is also the question of reason. Delving into the etymological history of reason, from logos to ratio and Grund, Derrida assesses reason as a kind of calculation. This chapter examines the relationship between law and calculation, drawing on Heidegger's equation of calculating function of reason with the justificatory function of law. Ultimately, this chapter argues that death penalty always miscalculates to the extent that it represents the law's attempt to account for the incalculable, or for that which exceeds calculation.
The chapters of this book revolve around the notion of the other in Jacques Derrida's work. How d... more The chapters of this book revolve around the notion of the other in Jacques Derrida's work. How does Derrida write of and on the other? Arguing that Derrida offers the most attentive and responsible thinking about the undeniable experience of the alterity of the other, "Apparitions--of Derrida's Other" examines exemplary instances of the relation to the other--the relation of Moses to God, Derrida's friendship with Jean-Luc Nancy, Derrida's relation to a recently departed actress caught on video, among others--to demonstrate how Derrida forces us to reconceive who or what the other may be.
For Derrida, the singularity of the other, always written in the lower case, includes not only the formal or logical sense of alterity, the otherness of the human other, but also the otherness of the nonliving, the no longer living, or the not yet alive. The book explores welcoming and hospitality, salutation and greeting, approaching and mourning as constitutive facets of the relation to these others.
Addressing Derrida's readings of Husserl, Levinas, Barthes, Blanchot, and Nancy, among other thinkers, and ranging across a number of disciplines, including art, literature, philosophy, and religion, this book explores the apparitions of the other by attending to the mode of appearing or coming on the scene, the phenomenality and visibility of the other. Analyzing some of Derrida's essays on the visual arts, the book also demonstrates that video and photography display an intimate relation to spectrality,as well as a structural relation to the absolute singularity of the other.
Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2006
This essay examines the phrase-"here, now, yes, believe me, I believe in ghosts"-a phra... more This essay examines the phrase-"here, now, yes, believe me, I believe in ghosts"-a phrase uttered by Derrida in a filmed interview. It takes up Derrida's avowal ofbelief in ghosts, not simply to explain the significance of "ghosts," simulacra, doubles, hence images, in Derrida's work and to show their relation to death and mourning, or to merely draw an analogy between the structure of doubles or simulacra and what we may call "synthetic" images, but also to attend to the alliance between the image, the ghostly, and belief.
FORUM: University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture & the Arts
There are only apparitions. There have always only been apparitions.Apparition names the complex ... more There are only apparitions. There have always only been apparitions.Apparition names the complex and unstable coming to appear, the very arising or emergence of what appears and the thing's appearing. The eidos and the phantasm find their mutual source in the apparition of a phantasma.The other [l'autre] never appears as such, it appears as an apparition: its appearance is in disappearing, it dis-appears in its appearance.There will have been haunting-before life and before death.
Taking into consideration the philosophical and psychoanalytic history of the term phantasm, Derr... more Taking into consideration the philosophical and psychoanalytic history of the term phantasm, Derrida in his late work provides for deconstruction a new definition of the «phantasm». Thinking the phantasm, Derrida argues, requires «a new logic» beyond logos. This paper attends especially to late use of the term phantasm in Derrida's work – the phantasm of «living death» and the phantasm of «almightiness» – to tap into resources unexplored by the tradition and to demonstrate that the phantasm need not necessarily be attrached to sovereignty and have a negative valence. Keywords: Blanchot, Deconstruction, Derrida, Event, Phantasm
There are only apparitions. There have always only been apparitions. Apparition names the complex... more There are only apparitions. There have always only been apparitions. Apparition names the complex and unstable coming to appear, the very arising or emergence of what appears and the thing's appearing. The eidos and the phantasm find their mutual source in the apparition of a phantasma. The other [l'autre] never appears as such, it appears as an apparition: its appearance is in disappearing, it dis-appears in its appearance. There will have been haunting-before life and before death.
... Page 4. Series Board James Bernauer Drucilla Cornell Thomas R. Flynn Kevin Hart Richard Kearn... more ... Page 4. Series Board James Bernauer Drucilla Cornell Thomas R. Flynn Kevin Hart Richard Kearney Jean-Luc Marion Adriaan Peperzak Thomas Sheehan Hent de Vries Merold Westphal Michael Zimmerman Page 5. ... Translated by Elizabeth Rottenberg as Friendship. ...
In several late texts, Derrida meditated on Paul Celan's poem ‘Grosse, Glühende Wölbung’, in ... more In several late texts, Derrida meditated on Paul Celan's poem ‘Grosse, Glühende Wölbung’, in which the departure of the world is announced. Delving into the ‘origin’ and ‘history’ of the ‘conception’ of the world, this paper suggests that, for Derrida, the end of the world is determined by and from death—the death of the other. The death of the other marks, each and every time, the absolute end of the world.
Taking into consideration the philosophical and psychoanalytic history of the term phantasm, Derr... more Taking into consideration the philosophical and psychoanalytic history of the term phantasm, Derrida in his late work provides deconstruction with a new definition of the «phantasm». Thinking the phantasm, Derrida argues, requires « a new logic » beyond logos. This paper attends especially to late use of the term phantasm in Derrida's work-the phantasm of «living death» and the phantasm of «almightiness»-to tap into resources unexplored by the tradition and to demonstrate that the phantasm need not necessarily be attrached to sovereignty or have a negative valence.
Turning to an example provided by Aristotle and taken up by Derrida in Politics of Friendship, wh... more Turning to an example provided by Aristotle and taken up by Derrida in Politics of Friendship, which functions as a limit case—loving the other beyond death—I argue that Derrida’s short-lived term, aimance, gently and lovingly contests the primacy given either to love or to friendship in the Western tradition, but also to the living act of loving and the figure of the lover, putting pressure on the very conceptual differences between these terms.
Deconstructing the Death Penalty: Derrida’s Death Penalty Seminars, Edited by Kelly Oliver and Stephanie Marie Straub, 2018
In the second volume of the Death Penalty Seminars Derrida establishes a relation between capital... more In the second volume of the Death Penalty Seminars Derrida establishes a relation between capital punishment and reason itself, declaring that the question of the death penalty is also the question of reason. Delving into the etymological history of reason, from logos to ratio and Grund, Derrida assesses reason as a kind of calculation. What is calculation? Is it any wonder that the thinker responsible for the principle of reason was also responsible for the invention of the calculus? What is the relation between criminal law and calculation? In the Death Penalty Seminars Derrida writes that the death penalty is bound up with a calculating decision, “the blind calculating drive of a calculation that presents itself as reason itself.” The death penalty implies a calculation prescribed by talionic law, a calculation involving retribution or punishment in exchange for the crime. Since German uses the language of reckoning or calculation and the language of law or justification in order to render ratio, Heidegger links the calculating function of reason with the justificatory function of law. What filiation is there between the law and calculation and calculability? How does Derrida’s thinking of calculation aid us in an analysis of capital punishment?
In several late texts, Derrida meditated on Paul Celan’s poem ‘Grosse, Glühende Wölbung’, in whic... more In several late texts, Derrida meditated on Paul Celan’s poem ‘Grosse, Glühende Wölbung’, in which the departure of the world is announced. Delving into the ‘origin’ and ‘history’ of the ‘conception’ of the world, this paper suggests that, for Derrida, the end of the world is determined by and from death—the death of the other. The death of the other marks, each and every time, the absolute end of the world.
In a complex, illuminating late essay, "Remain(s)--The Master, or the Supplement of Infinity" (20... more In a complex, illuminating late essay, "Remain(s)--The Master, or the Supplement of Infinity" (2002), treating the notion of reste, Derrida draws an "analogy" between two vastly different "cultures"--the Greco-European and the Brahmanic Of India.
Deconstructing the Death Penalty: Derrida's Seminars and the New Abolitionism, 2018
In the second volume of the Death Penalty Seminars Derrida establishes a relation between capital... more In the second volume of the Death Penalty Seminars Derrida establishes a relation between capital punishment and reason itself, declaring that the question of the death penalty is also the question of reason. Delving into the etymological history of reason, from logos to ratio and Grund, Derrida assesses reason as a kind of calculation. This chapter examines the relationship between law and calculation, drawing on Heidegger's equation of calculating function of reason with the justificatory function of law. Ultimately, this chapter argues that death penalty always miscalculates to the extent that it represents the law's attempt to account for the incalculable, or for that which exceeds calculation.
The chapters of this book revolve around the notion of the other in Jacques Derrida's work. How d... more The chapters of this book revolve around the notion of the other in Jacques Derrida's work. How does Derrida write of and on the other? Arguing that Derrida offers the most attentive and responsible thinking about the undeniable experience of the alterity of the other, "Apparitions--of Derrida's Other" examines exemplary instances of the relation to the other--the relation of Moses to God, Derrida's friendship with Jean-Luc Nancy, Derrida's relation to a recently departed actress caught on video, among others--to demonstrate how Derrida forces us to reconceive who or what the other may be.
For Derrida, the singularity of the other, always written in the lower case, includes not only the formal or logical sense of alterity, the otherness of the human other, but also the otherness of the nonliving, the no longer living, or the not yet alive. The book explores welcoming and hospitality, salutation and greeting, approaching and mourning as constitutive facets of the relation to these others.
Addressing Derrida's readings of Husserl, Levinas, Barthes, Blanchot, and Nancy, among other thinkers, and ranging across a number of disciplines, including art, literature, philosophy, and religion, this book explores the apparitions of the other by attending to the mode of appearing or coming on the scene, the phenomenality and visibility of the other. Analyzing some of Derrida's essays on the visual arts, the book also demonstrates that video and photography display an intimate relation to spectrality,as well as a structural relation to the absolute singularity of the other.
Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2006
This essay examines the phrase-"here, now, yes, believe me, I believe in ghosts"-a phra... more This essay examines the phrase-"here, now, yes, believe me, I believe in ghosts"-a phrase uttered by Derrida in a filmed interview. It takes up Derrida's avowal ofbelief in ghosts, not simply to explain the significance of "ghosts," simulacra, doubles, hence images, in Derrida's work and to show their relation to death and mourning, or to merely draw an analogy between the structure of doubles or simulacra and what we may call "synthetic" images, but also to attend to the alliance between the image, the ghostly, and belief.
FORUM: University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture & the Arts
There are only apparitions. There have always only been apparitions.Apparition names the complex ... more There are only apparitions. There have always only been apparitions.Apparition names the complex and unstable coming to appear, the very arising or emergence of what appears and the thing's appearing. The eidos and the phantasm find their mutual source in the apparition of a phantasma.The other [l'autre] never appears as such, it appears as an apparition: its appearance is in disappearing, it dis-appears in its appearance.There will have been haunting-before life and before death.
Taking into consideration the philosophical and psychoanalytic history of the term phantasm, Derr... more Taking into consideration the philosophical and psychoanalytic history of the term phantasm, Derrida in his late work provides for deconstruction a new definition of the «phantasm». Thinking the phantasm, Derrida argues, requires «a new logic» beyond logos. This paper attends especially to late use of the term phantasm in Derrida's work – the phantasm of «living death» and the phantasm of «almightiness» – to tap into resources unexplored by the tradition and to demonstrate that the phantasm need not necessarily be attrached to sovereignty and have a negative valence. Keywords: Blanchot, Deconstruction, Derrida, Event, Phantasm
There are only apparitions. There have always only been apparitions. Apparition names the complex... more There are only apparitions. There have always only been apparitions. Apparition names the complex and unstable coming to appear, the very arising or emergence of what appears and the thing's appearing. The eidos and the phantasm find their mutual source in the apparition of a phantasma. The other [l'autre] never appears as such, it appears as an apparition: its appearance is in disappearing, it dis-appears in its appearance. There will have been haunting-before life and before death.
... Page 4. Series Board James Bernauer Drucilla Cornell Thomas R. Flynn Kevin Hart Richard Kearn... more ... Page 4. Series Board James Bernauer Drucilla Cornell Thomas R. Flynn Kevin Hart Richard Kearney Jean-Luc Marion Adriaan Peperzak Thomas Sheehan Hent de Vries Merold Westphal Michael Zimmerman Page 5. ... Translated by Elizabeth Rottenberg as Friendship. ...
In several late texts, Derrida meditated on Paul Celan's poem ‘Grosse, Glühende Wölbung’, in ... more In several late texts, Derrida meditated on Paul Celan's poem ‘Grosse, Glühende Wölbung’, in which the departure of the world is announced. Delving into the ‘origin’ and ‘history’ of the ‘conception’ of the world, this paper suggests that, for Derrida, the end of the world is determined by and from death—the death of the other. The death of the other marks, each and every time, the absolute end of the world.
Taking into consideration the philosophical and psychoanalytic history of the term phantasm, Derr... more Taking into consideration the philosophical and psychoanalytic history of the term phantasm, Derrida in his late work provides deconstruction with a new definition of the «phantasm». Thinking the phantasm, Derrida argues, requires « a new logic » beyond logos. This paper attends especially to late use of the term phantasm in Derrida's work-the phantasm of «living death» and the phantasm of «almightiness»-to tap into resources unexplored by the tradition and to demonstrate that the phantasm need not necessarily be attrached to sovereignty or have a negative valence.
Turning to an example provided by Aristotle and taken up by Derrida in Politics of Friendship, wh... more Turning to an example provided by Aristotle and taken up by Derrida in Politics of Friendship, which functions as a limit case—loving the other beyond death—I argue that Derrida’s short-lived term, aimance, gently and lovingly contests the primacy given either to love or to friendship in the Western tradition, but also to the living act of loving and the figure of the lover, putting pressure on the very conceptual differences between these terms.
Deconstructing the Death Penalty: Derrida’s Death Penalty Seminars, Edited by Kelly Oliver and Stephanie Marie Straub, 2018
In the second volume of the Death Penalty Seminars Derrida establishes a relation between capital... more In the second volume of the Death Penalty Seminars Derrida establishes a relation between capital punishment and reason itself, declaring that the question of the death penalty is also the question of reason. Delving into the etymological history of reason, from logos to ratio and Grund, Derrida assesses reason as a kind of calculation. What is calculation? Is it any wonder that the thinker responsible for the principle of reason was also responsible for the invention of the calculus? What is the relation between criminal law and calculation? In the Death Penalty Seminars Derrida writes that the death penalty is bound up with a calculating decision, “the blind calculating drive of a calculation that presents itself as reason itself.” The death penalty implies a calculation prescribed by talionic law, a calculation involving retribution or punishment in exchange for the crime. Since German uses the language of reckoning or calculation and the language of law or justification in order to render ratio, Heidegger links the calculating function of reason with the justificatory function of law. What filiation is there between the law and calculation and calculability? How does Derrida’s thinking of calculation aid us in an analysis of capital punishment?
In several late texts, Derrida meditated on Paul Celan’s poem ‘Grosse, Glühende Wölbung’, in whic... more In several late texts, Derrida meditated on Paul Celan’s poem ‘Grosse, Glühende Wölbung’, in which the departure of the world is announced. Delving into the ‘origin’ and ‘history’ of the ‘conception’ of the world, this paper suggests that, for Derrida, the end of the world is determined by and from death—the death of the other. The death of the other marks, each and every time, the absolute end of the world.
In a complex, illuminating late essay, "Remain(s)--The Master, or the Supplement of Infinity" (20... more In a complex, illuminating late essay, "Remain(s)--The Master, or the Supplement of Infinity" (2002), treating the notion of reste, Derrida draws an "analogy" between two vastly different "cultures"--the Greco-European and the Brahmanic Of India.
It is in his seminar The Beast & the Sovereign, Volume II that Derrida comes to argue that the ph... more It is in his seminar The Beast & the Sovereign, Volume II that Derrida comes to argue that the phantasm, “dying alive,” and survival need to be thought in relation to, and with, each other. This essay explores the intriguing confluence of these three terms.
Presented as part of the Lecture Series “What Will Poststructuralism Have Been?“ on May 21, 2022 ... more Presented as part of the Lecture Series “What Will Poststructuralism Have Been?“ on May 21, 2022 at the Department of Philosophy, the University of Vienna, organized by the “Poststructuralism, Gender Theory and Psychoanalysis“ research group. To appear in the proceedings edited by Eva-Maria Aigner and Jonas Oßwald.
In his last interview Apprendre à vivre enfin Derrida confesses that he has "never learned-to-liv... more In his last interview Apprendre à vivre enfin Derrida confesses that he has "never learned-to-live."2 "In fact not at all!" (Derrida, Apprendre à vivre enfin, p. 24/24). In the "Exordium" at the beginning of Specters of Marx a voice remarks that living, by definition, is not something one learns.3 It is not learned from life by life. Moreover, dying is also not something one learns (Derrida, Spectres de Marx, p. 15/14). Alluding to Montaigne's famous essay, Derrida notes in his interview that "learning to live, that would mean learning how to die, learning to take into account, so as to accept, absolute mortality-without salvation" (Derrida, Apprendre à vivre enfin, p. 24/24). He admits that he hasn't learned anything or acquired anything about this subject. Can one learn, he wonders, "to accept or, better, to affirm life?" (Derrida, Apprendre à vivre enfin, p. 24/24).4 In his last days, he writes with regret, that the time of sursis (reprieve, deferment, probation, suspension, deferral, postponement) has shrunk, retreated, flattened, narrowed [rétrécit] in an accelerated way [de façon accélérée] and
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Books by Kas Saghafi
For Derrida, the singularity of the other, always written in the lower case, includes not only the formal or logical sense of alterity, the otherness of the human other, but also the otherness of the nonliving, the no longer living, or the not yet alive. The book explores welcoming and hospitality, salutation and greeting, approaching and mourning as constitutive facets of the relation to these others.
Addressing Derrida's readings of Husserl, Levinas, Barthes, Blanchot, and Nancy, among other thinkers, and ranging across a number of disciplines, including art, literature, philosophy, and religion, this book explores the apparitions of the other by attending to the mode of appearing or coming on the scene, the phenomenality and visibility of the other. Analyzing some of Derrida's essays on the visual arts, the book also demonstrates that video and photography display an intimate relation to spectrality,as well as a structural relation to the absolute singularity of the other.
Papers by Kas Saghafi
For Derrida, the singularity of the other, always written in the lower case, includes not only the formal or logical sense of alterity, the otherness of the human other, but also the otherness of the nonliving, the no longer living, or the not yet alive. The book explores welcoming and hospitality, salutation and greeting, approaching and mourning as constitutive facets of the relation to these others.
Addressing Derrida's readings of Husserl, Levinas, Barthes, Blanchot, and Nancy, among other thinkers, and ranging across a number of disciplines, including art, literature, philosophy, and religion, this book explores the apparitions of the other by attending to the mode of appearing or coming on the scene, the phenomenality and visibility of the other. Analyzing some of Derrida's essays on the visual arts, the book also demonstrates that video and photography display an intimate relation to spectrality,as well as a structural relation to the absolute singularity of the other.
alive,” and survival need to be thought in relation to, and with, each other. This essay explores the intriguing
confluence of these three terms.