The Animal That Therefore I Am is the long-awaited translation of the complete text of Jacques Derrida's ten-hour address to the 1997 Crisy 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 Derrida's work and a profound philosophical investigation and critique of the relegation of animal life that takes place as a result of the distinction-dating from Descartes-between 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 book's autobiographical theme intersects with its philosophical analysis through the figures of looking and nakedness, staged in terms of Derrida's 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 man's dominion over the beastsand trace a history of how man has systematically displaced onto the animal his own failings or btises. 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 lifeto which he returned in much of his later work.
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About the Author
The late JACQUES DERRIDA was the single most influential voice in European philosophy of the last quarter of the twentieth century. His The Animal That Therefore I Am, Sovereignties in Question, and Deconstruction in a Nutshell have been published by Fordham University Press.
MARIE-LOUIS MALLET has been a Program Director at the Collge International de Philosophie and was the organizer of three of the four Derrida Cerisy conferences. She is author of La Musique en respect and is the editor of the special edition of Les Cahiers de l'Herne on Derrida.
DAVID WILLS is Professor of French and English at the University at Albany, SUNY. His most recent book is Dorsality: Thinking Back Through Technology and Politics.
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Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), was born in Algeria, has been called the most famous philosopher of our time. He was the author of a number of books, including Writing and Difference, which came to be seen as defining texts of postmodernist thought.
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50 of 52 people found the following review helpful
By Mike
Format:Paperback
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.
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.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By threezees
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is among my first experiences with Derrida, and it has forever changed the way I view animal cruelty and the animal- human relationship. Derrida is brilliant. It's easy to feel privileged with the companionship of his thoughts and deconstruction of the philosophies of Descartes, Heidegger, and Lacan among others. We have gone from the traditional image of philosopher with dog at his feet to philosopher stark naked and vulnerable before his cat. It is an illuminating read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By philosophy1
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Very much enjoyed reading the above three reviews and, of course, The Animal That Therefore I Am; and there is More To Follow in every sense that Darrida meant, including those thinkers who may have the courage to follow through the doors Derrida has opened with an open mind and accept the challenges that he has made to so much of our western philosophical traditions; Derrida's "deconstructing" offers an enormous breath of fresh air vis-a-vis all those dogmas we have so long taken for granted and for which our animals continue to suffer from to this day.
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