Taking on the Tradition: Jacques Derrida and the Legacies of Deconstruction (Cultural Memory in the Present)

In this volume the author focuses on how the work of Derrida has helped rework the themes of tradition, legacy and inheritance in Western philosophy. It includes readings of Derrida's texts that demonstrate the claims he makes cannot be understood without considering the way in which he makes those claims.

Taking on the Tradition focuses on how the work of Jacques Derrida has helped us rethink and rework the themes of tradition, legacy, and inheritance in the Western philosophical tradition. It concentrates not only on such themes in the work of Derrida but also on his own gestures with regard to these themes—that is, on the performativity of Derrida’s texts. The book thus uses Derrida’s understanding of speech act theory to reread his own work.
The book consists in a series of close readings of Derrida’s texts to demonstrate that the claims he makes in his work cannot be fully understood without considering the way he makes those claims. The book considers Derrida’s relation to the Greek philosophical tradition and to his immediate predecessors in the French philosophical tradition, as well as his own legacy within the contemporary scene.
Part I examines Derrida’s analyses of Plato and Aristotle on the themes of writing and metaphor. Part II looks at themes of donation, inheritance, pedagogy, and influence in relation to Derrida’s readings of the works of Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, and Jean-Pierre Vernant. Part III considers the promises and legacies of Derrida’s work on autobiography, friendship, and hospitality, themes Derrida has recently taken up in his readings of Martin Heidegger, Maurice Blanchot, and Emmanuel Levinas.
In the Conclusion, the author analyzes what Derrida has recently called a “messianicity without messianism” and shows how Derrida develops two different notions of the future and of legacy: one that always determines a horizon for the donation and reception of any legacy or tradition, and one that leaves open a radically unknown and unknowable future for that legacy and tradition.

Library Journal

Naas (philosophy, DePaul Univ.) has been Derrida's translator and friend for almost a decade, so he is well suited to examine the philosopher's deconstructionist theory and writing. Derrida, Naas claims, presents his own indebtedness to traditional literary work even in his deconstructions. Derrida's writing is itself performative, inseparable from what he says. The nine essays collected here examine aspects of Derrida's theoretical development as well as areas of deconstructionist work: his examination of Plato, detours in philosophical problematizing, metaphor, Foucault as the other end of the theoretical pendulum, Derrida's sources, Violence and Metaphysics (from Writing and Difference, 1978), and Derrida's role as a purveyor of theory. This is an essential purchase for academic collections and will be of interest to general readers educated in 20th-century Continental philosophy. Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley P.L., CA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Introduction : Signing Off On Tradition -- A Given Take : The Platonic Reception Of Plato In The Pharmacy -- Given Time For A Detour : The Abyssal Gift Of Khōra -- Stumping The Sun : The Odyssey Of Metaphor In White Mythology -- Derrida's Watch/foucault's Pendulum : A Final Impetus To The Cogito Debate -- Lacunae : Divining Derrida's Sources Through Telepathy -- The Phenomenon In Question : Violence, Metaphysics, And The Levinasian Third -- Better Believing It : Translating Skepticism In Memoirs Of The Blind -- Just A Turn Away : Apostrophe And The Politics Of Friendship -- Hospitality As An Open Question : Deconstruction's Welcome Politics -- Conclusion : Passing On The Mantle : Elijah's Glas And The Second Coming Of Dr. John Alexander Dowie. Michael Naas. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [191]-211). taking on the tradition 1 taking on the tradition2 21 taking on the tradition3 41 taking on the tradition4 64 taking on the tradition5 84 taking on the tradition6 104