PREFACE............................... INTRODUCTION............................ VII XIX PART ONE JEAN-FRANÇOIS LYOTARD CHAPTER ONE FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH LYOTARD.......... 3 I. The Postmodern Condition: The End of the Grand Narratives 6 1. The Limits of Systems Theory............... 7 2. Science, Technology, and Performativity......... 10 3. Intermezzo: Personal Enjoyment and Technological Innovations........................... 13 II. Lyotard s Language Pragmatics................ 15 1. Basic Vocabulary: Phrase, Regimes of Phrases, Discourse Genres........................... 15 2. The Question of Justice.................. 18 III. Transition Towards the Sublime............... 21 CHAPTER TWO KANT S NOTION OF THE SUBLIME AND ITS APPROPRIA- TION BY LYOTARD....................... 27 I. Kant on the Difference between the Beautiful and the Sublime 29 1. The Beautiful........................ 29 2. The Sublime........................ 31 II. The Sublime as Contrast Experience............. 33 1. The Various Phases of the Contrast Experience...... 34 2. The Clash between Mind and Nature as the Core Experience of the Sublime.................... 36 3. Enthusiasm as a Modality of the Feeling of the Sublime. 40 III. Lyotard s Revised Reading of the Sublime.......... 43 1. Signs of the Sublime in History?............. 44 2. The Solely Indicative Function of as if Presentations: No Guidelines for Political Action............... 48
XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER THREE TRANSPOSING KANT TO THE KEY OF THE POSTMODERN 57 I. Why this Interest in Kant? and Which Kant?........ 63 II. Lyotard s Distinctive Reading of Kant s Critique of Judgment 71 1. The Tautegorical : The Felt Presence of Thought to Itself 72 2. Erasure of the Substantial Subject............. 75 3. Sensus Communis Does Not Imply Unanimity...... 77 4. The Importance of Feelings in the Faculties Contact with the Supersensible...................... 80 5. Unification of the Faculties through Their Affinity in the Felt Contact with the Supersensible.......... 83 III. Postmodern Features in Lyotard s Reading of Kant..... 87 1. Clearing Up a Possible Misunderstanding......... 87 2. Five Postmodern Features................. 91 IV. Some Methodological Considerations............. 94 CHAPTER FOUR THE ROLE OF FEELINGS IN LYOTARD S POLITICAL JUDG- MENT............................... 99 I. Just Gaming: The Felt Obligation: Judging without Criteria 101 1. Obligation Cannot Be Derived from Theoretical Knowledge; it Comes from Listening.................. 103 2. Kant s Categorical Imperative: The Role of Reflection.. 107 II. Lyotard s Political Judgment: From Just Gaming to The Differend. The Refusal to Stifle the Differend.......... 109 III. The Feeling Left by Auschwitz................ 114 IV. Auschwitz: Remember! Heidegger and the jews..... 120 V. Testifying to the Unpresentable: The Vocation of the Artist. 128 VI. The Jewish Roots of the Feeling of the Sublime....... 136 CHAPTER FIVE UNIVERSALITY REVISITED.................. 143 I. Rupture with Modernity or Radicalization of Modernity?.. 146 1. Invention of the Rules: Beyond Habermas Consensus Theory........................... 146 2. Lyotard s Response to Nihilism the Awareness of the Little of Reality......................... 149 3. The Meaning of Always too Early/Always too Late : In Search of the Rules..................... 152
XV II. The Questionable Universalization Inherent in the Speculative Phrase............................. 155 III. Towards a Universality without Exclusion.......... 161 1. Only an Attitude of Bearing Witness to the Unpresentable Creates an Openness towards True Universality..... 161 2. The Jewish Methodology of the Concrete......... 165 3. The Notion of True Universality: Justice of Multiplicity. 167 4. Sharpening our Working Hypothesis........... 170 PART TWO JACQUES DERRIDA CHAPTER SIX THE NIETZSCHEAN INFLUENCE............... 175 I. Nietzsche s Vitalism and Perspectivism........... 177 1. Perspectivism........................ 178 2. Vitalism........................... 180 II. Derrida s Appropriation of Nietzsche............. 181 1. Weakening of Nietzsche s Vitalism............ 181 2. The Legacy of Nietzsche s Perspectivism......... 187 III. Radicalization of Heidegger s Deconstruction of Western Metaphysics.......................... 194 1. Heidegger and the Question of Being........... 194 2. Derrida s Critical Assessment of Semiotics........ 198 3. Derrida s Criticism of Heidegger............. 201 4. Back to the Nietzschean Influence............. 205 CHAPTER SEVEN DERRIDA AND PHENOMENOLOGY.............. 207 I. Husserl s Phenomenology................... 207 1. From Static to Genetic Phenomenology.......... 208 2. Comparison with Kant s Tanscendental Approach.... 211 II. Derrida s Notion of Deconstruction............. 217 III. The Rise of Deconstruction: Derrida s Early Studies of Husserl 222 1. Genesis and Structure in Husserl s Phenomenology... 223 2. The Problem of Genesis in Husserl s Phenomenology.. 227 a) The Temporality of the Perceiving I......... 228 b) Questioning Husserl s Idealistic Concept of Science. 230 3. Introduction to Husserl s Origin of Geometry....... 233
XVI TABLE OF CONTENTS a) Criticism of Husserl s Univocal Use of Language... 237 b) The Kantian Idea Cannot be Phenomenologically Perceived.......................... 240 CHAPTER EIGHT DERRIDA S EXPLORATION OF EXTERIORITY AND ANTE- RIORITY.............................. 245 I. Violence and Metaphysics: The Question of Exteriority... 245 1. Derrida s Positive Appreciation of Levinas Totality and Infinity........................... 246 2. Problematization of Levinas Metaphysics of the Infinite 249 3. The Strange Coupling of Judaism and Hellenism..... 253 II. Speech and Phenomena: Introduction to the Problem of Signs in Husserl s Phenomenology................. 254 1. The Idealistic Bias in Husserl s Theory of Signs..... 255 2. The Role of Non-Presence in the Constitution of Presence 259 3. Elements in Husserl that Prepared the Way for Différance 263 III. The Mythical Anteriority of Trace, Différance, and Khôra 266 1. Trace............................ 269 2. Différance......................... 270 3. Khôra............................ 272 CHAPTER NINE DERRIDA S POLITICAL ETHICS: FOUNDATIONS..... 281 I. The Desire for the Impossible : Derrida s Move beyond Phenomenology........................ 281 1. The Impossible Gift.................... 282 2. On the Gift: A Discussion between Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Marion...................... 287 II. Derrida and the Question of Justice.............. 298 1. Has Deconstruction Anything to Say about Justice?... 299 2. The Mystical Foundation of Authority.......... 302 3. In Search for an Impossible Justice beyond Legality.. 305 III. Walter Benjamin s Critique of the Force of Law: A Source for Derrida?............................ 311 1. Law-Instituting Force and Law-Preserving Force : A Questionable Separation..................... 312 2. Demythologizing Benjamin s Apocalyptic Interruption of History........................... 317
XVII CHAPTER TEN DERRIDA S POLITICAL ETHICS: FURTHER ELABORATIONS. THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE................. 321 I. Derrida and the Legacy of Marx............... 322 1. Spectrality......................... 322 2. Criticism of Fukuyama................... 326 3. Plea for a New International............... 329 4. Derrida s Notion of Messianicity............. 333 II. Cosmopolitanism: The Right to Hospitality......... 337 1. Who and What Is the Stranger?.............. 337 2. The Right to Asylum.................... 344 3. Welcoming the Stranger: Beyond Mere Tolerance.... 349 III. Impossible Forgiveness................... 355 1. Lies in Politics and the Confession of Crimes against Humanity.............................. 355 2. Clarification of Some Basic Notions............ 359 3. Impossible Forgiveness and Its Impact on the Political and Juridical Order.................... 362 GENERAL CONCLUSION.................... 365 I. A New Kind of Universality................. 366 II. The Influence of Jewish Thought............... 376 III. Practical Applications..................... 389