Very Little...Almost Nothing: Death, Philosophy, Literature (Warwick Studies in European Philosophy) [Paperback]

Simon Critchley (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415128226 | ISBN-13: 978-0415128223 | Publication Date: June 29, 1997

The 'death of man', the 'end of history' and even philosophy are strong and troubling currents running through contemporary debates. Yet since Nietzsche's heralding of the 'death of god', philosophy has been unable to explain the question of finitude.
Very Little...Almost Nothing goes to the heart of this problem through an exploration of Blanchot's theory of literature, Stanley Cavell's interpretations of romanticism and the importance of death in the work of Samuel Beckett. Simon Critchley links these themes to the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas to present a powerful new picture of how we must approach the importance of death in philosophy.
A compelling reading of the convergence of literature and philosophy, Very Little...Almost Nothing opens up new ways of understanding finitude, modernity and the nature of the imagination.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is a very brave book ... it makes philosophical conversation possible again after two decades of pragmatist intolerance.
–Roger Poole, Parallax

(T)his is an often beautifully written philosophical act of mourning ... It also commands respect because it obliges one to examine the fictions one employs to avoid really doing philosophy. Critchley's steadfastly post-Kantian rejection of theological answers to the questions he asks is very welcome.
–Andrew Bowie , Radical Philosophy

...manages with some aplomb, to pull off the extraordinarily difficult task of saying something new and interesting about Beckett and Blanchot.
–Martin McQuillan, New Formations

Critchley keeps his writings for the most part powerful and elegant, wide-ranging but well-focussed. The book is at all times sibylline, moving, insightful, explorative.
–Colin Davis, French Studies

Simon Critchley's readings of Schlegel, Blanchot and Beckett are remarkably nuanced and perceptive. Much more than an excellent companion to the study of the intertwinings of philosophy and literature, it is an admirable meditation on the ubiquity of finitude and its ungraspability.
–Jacques Taminiaux, Boston College --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Simon Critchley is Reader in Philosophy at the University of Essex and author of The Ethics of Deconstruction.

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (June 29, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415128226
• ISBN-13: 978-0415128223
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,495,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Simon Critchley is Chair of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York and part-time Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands. He lives in Brooklyn.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life as the Meaning of Life, June 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Very Little...Almost Nothing: Death, Philosophy, Literature (Warwick Studies in European Philosophy) (Paperback)

Very Little, Almost Nothing is a remarkable response to nihilism in our age, the age of the "Death of God." What, Critchley asks, is the meaning of human life faced with death and the impossibility of religious salvation? With poignantly perceptive and erudite analyses he counteracts the two most dominant and dangerous responses to nihilism: apathy and the desire to overcome nihilism with some other form of transcendance. For Critchley, the appropriate response to nihilism lies not in establishing a meaning for life outside of life but in revisioning the everyday existence we all must lead. The true merit and deepest insights of this book lie in its ability to open the reader, at once, to the beauty and frightfulness of radically finite existence.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most crucial philosophical pieces of the 20th cen, November 14, 2000

By 

Stephen Smith - See all my reviews

This review is from: Very Little...Almost Nothing: Death, Philosophy, Literature (Warwick Studies in European Philosophy) (Paperback)

Critchley portrays an honest and straight-foreward picture of man's nihilistic state in a harsh and uncertain reality. The book begins with an intro to give the reader some background and justification for our meaningless existence in a world absent of God. He then moves on to present the reader three sections/lectures in which he analyzes specific aspects of literature, philosophy, and death in order to set the stage for his synthesis in the end of the third section. The first lecture focuses on Blanchot and Levinas's concept of the impossibility of death. The second discusses the failure of romanticism (and indirectly transhumanism)through analyzing authors such as Emerson and Cavell. The third lecture, and perhaps my favorite, addresses Beckett's abstractions of the ungraspable; that of our own finitude and innevitable death. I was somewhat dismayed by the author's neglect to translate a number of French and some German quotes into English, leaving the reader on his own to look up what it meant if he wasnt fortunate to already know. I sometimes found myself lost at first, having no background information on some of the philosophers that Critchley critiqued (Blanchot, Cavell, etc.). Yet I must insist that the reader push on regardless, because the final synthesis that is presented is overwhelmingly important and original. The author explains to us the failure of religion and of life-affirming existentialisms (via the will to power (Nietzsche) or simply the will (Camus, et al)) and offers what is left, a minimalistic condition, to grab on to in the face of the abyss. This concept earned it my 5-star review - don't let the bookcover make you pass this one up.