Radical Atheism: Derrida and the Time of Life (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics) [Paperback]

Martin Hagglund (Author)

Book Description

Series: Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics | Publication Date: September 3, 2008

Radical Atheism presents a profound new reading of the influential French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Against the prevalent notion that there was an ethical or religious "turn" in Derrida's thinking, Hägglund argues that a radical atheism informs Derrida's work from beginning to end. Proceeding from Derrida's insight into the constitution of time, Hägglund demonstrates how Derrida rethinks the condition of identity, ethics, religion, and political emancipation in accordance with the logic of radical atheism. Hägglund challenges other major interpreters of Derrida's work and offers a compelling account of Derrida's thinking on life and death, good and evil, self and other. Furthermore, Hägglund does not only explicate Derrida's position but also develops his arguments, fortifies his logic, and pursues its implications. The result is a groundbreaking deconstruction of the perennial philosophical themes of time and desire as well as pressing contemporary issues of sovereignty and democracy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Martin Hägglund has produced an exceptional work. It is peerless and groundbreaking in its originality and contributes the most consistent, compelling and complete articulation of Derrida's work. In summation Radical Atheism is daring and persuasive in opening up materialist and atheistic vistas for future deconstructive analysis. Derrida is portrayed as a philosopher concerned with the thick of life in its vicissitudes. It offers a forceful account of how Derrida meditates on questions of life and death, good and evil, politics and the meaning of mortality. It will prove attractive to all readers of Derrida, professional and student alike and undoubtedly will become a definitive starting point for understanding deconstruction."—Patrick O'Connor, Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology

"In the very insightful and intelligent book by Martin Hägglund. his analysis reaches what we could call the zero degree of deconstruction, the point at which deconstructive logics show their internal potential and cannot be assimilated to any of the various discourses—ethicist, religious, and so forth—which have tried to hegemonize it."—Ernesto Laclau, Diacritics

"In his important and hard-hitting new book, Martin Hägglund lucidly delineates the argument by means of which Derrida problematises the desire for plenitude in its various guises, and on the strength of this clarity of insight offers trenchant critiques of a number of interpretations of Derridean thought that simplify or distort itHägglund goes on to show in a sharper light even than Derrida elected to do how [time] provides the basis for the latter's treatment of the most far-reaching topics, starting with life itselfHägglund has shown superbly how Derrida's account of time underlies his explorations of these ethical topics, and how unlike traditional ethical postures the results are."—Derek Attridge, Derrida Today

"Hägglund writes so well, argues so persuasively, and clears the interpretative field in such a confident and strident manner that if one is willing to engage this work it is hard not to be swept up by it and won over to its side. Indeed it is difficult not to think that Hägglund has figured out Derrida's logic like no one else really has, that he has not so much put Derrida's thought in a nutshell as completely cracked the nut, and that no one will be able to understand Derrida's work adequately without coming to terms with the arguments Hägglund makes in this work. Arguing by means of both a judicious use of Derrida's own works and a relentless critique of many well-known commentators on Derrida, Hägglund shows the deficiencies of all other interpretations of Derrida that fail to take into account the full implications of the trace and radical finitude."—Michael Naas, The New Centennial Review

"Radical Atheism is the most accurate, insightful, and complete account anyone has produced so far of Derrida's thought. Hägglund refutes a whole panoply of influential misreadings of Derrida, and he does so with a flair and clarity rarely attained by writers on deconstruction."—Henry Staten, The New Centennial Review

About the Author

Martin Hägglund is a Charlotte W. Newcombe Fellow in Comparative Literature at Cornell University. He is the author of Chronophobia: Essays on Time and Finitude, which was published in Swedish in 2002. In Spring 2009, CR: The New Centennial Review will publish a special issue devoted to his work. Visit Martin Hagglund's website: www.martinhagglund.se

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Stanford University Press (September 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804700788
• ISBN-13: 978-0804700788
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #465,550 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Martin Hägglund is a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows. His most recent book is Radical Atheism: Derrida and the Time of Life, which is the subject of a special issue of CR: The New Centennial Review. His website is maintained at www.martinhagglund.se

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Derrida Demystified, May 29, 2011

By 

taniesha (Montego Bay, Jamaica) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Radical Atheism: Derrida and the Time of Life (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics) (Paperback)

This is perhaps the clearest account of Derrida's thought I've ever read. Achieving such a high level of clarity when dealing with "ultratranscendental" topics could have been no simple task, so Hagglund deserves commendation. I am confident that anyone who reads this text will have very little trouble understanding it (though the ideas are themselves quite intricate) and will come away with a much better understanding of Derrida and his relationship to several other philosophers. I certainly have benefited from reading it. The text doesn't even seem to be overtly pursuing an argument of its own in a way that might skew the reader's understanding of Derrida--but that might just be the result of a genius' ability to disguise his artifice. In any case, it's a really pleasant read.

5.0 out of 5 stars Counting time has no "now"? Shades of Mallarme, July 26, 2011

By 

Rexford J. Styzens (Long Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Radical Atheism: Derrida and the Time of Life (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics) (Paperback)

I agree wholeheartedly with the first customer review. This book is all those things he finds and much more. Especially, it is an excellent place to begin study of what is now a wide-ranging discussion of Derrida.

Maybe it is too much to expect in a single study, still, Hagglund's interpretation (IMHO, and I have not studied as many of D's texts as he has) includes a glaring omission. It has been 25 years since I read D's "Ousia and Gramme" that sets the tone for what Hagglund employs as the fundamental element in D's phenomenology--"time," understood as calculation. (D treats time like a bookkeeper--the bottom line is necessarily something counted.) D mistakenly interpreted Heidegger in that essay as having offered no alternative to "vulgar" time. That allows D to modify Aristotle's analysis of time so that the ecstasies of past, present, future become determinant (perhaps as "absolute"? horrors!). Consequently, Hagglund's interpretation ignores Heidegger's conception of "world," not as the planet nor as context but as pre-given for human self-understanding.

Hagglund's rhetorical insistence that D's "autoimmunity" be understood in terms of violence (e.g., rather than mere "conflict") provides drama that D appreciated. But it has already allowed Hagglund's detractors to use the equally valid rhetoric of negotiation available in D to discredit Hagglund (e.g., John Caputo, "The Return of Anti-Religion: From Radical Atheism to Radical Theology," "Journal of Culture and Religious Theory," 11.2 (2011).). Only time will tell whether the style difference becomes sound and fury without settlement.

Most unfortunate is that Hagglund's interpretation lends itself to a caricature. Heraclitus told us that we cannot step into the same river twice. Hagglund's interpretation (like Mallarme's poetic "There is no present") denies we can step into the same river once. (Second thoughts: In SOCIAL ONTOLOGY, M Eldred insists on an ontological break as a "primal split." That then allows human freedom to be understood as out of nothingness. I don't know what to make of that, in view of my esteem for Eldred.) A bit more of existentialism (preferably of the Heidegger variety) affirming that "The time is now" (e.g., "not to choose is also to choose") might have blended the flow of rhetoric with the flow of time.

So Derrida on the "autoimmune," which informs many of his later writings, is very promising; not so the "trace," if it requires a break in time (but developing thought may alter my opinion).