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Title: Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues With Jurgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida by Giovanna Borradori, Jurgen Habermas, Jacques Derrida ISBN: 0-226-06664-9 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: May, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.65 (17 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: A Philosophy left on the table....
Comment: The main issues I have with this book are:
1. the dialogue with Habermas is way too short. I don't know if he was on a time line, but, it is just as he is gathering a full head of steam that everything ends, and what he has to say and to subject to thoughtful consideration is profoundly worth mulling over deeply. I kept wishing Borradori would continue to probe further with Habermas. He is the foremost thinker in Germany since Heidegger and is as creatively determined to tackle this issue of terrorism as anyone could aspire to. He goes after the issues with a passion and a commitment. Perhaps there will be more from him in his own write in the future.
2. Derrida likes to hear himself talk and see himself write. The foremost exponent of Thesaurus Philosophy, Derrida does not so much hermeneutically deconstruct as blather on, much like a Michael Palin riff in Monty Python. Read the opening pages of the dialogue with Derrida, and then go watch Palin in THE CONCERT FOR GEORGE HARRISON, and I dare you to deconstruct the difference. I keep expecting Derrida to launch into the Lumberjack Song. He gets to the meat of the issue but then becomes obsessed with his own vocabulary, like the boring uncle at family gatherings. You would think there would be more drive from somone who experienced the sort of childhood and coming of age that he did, but, like so many other French thinkers, he seems to fall in love with the way words roll off.
3. Borradori comes up short with Habrmas and doesn't cut off or focus Derrida enough. Too much of her post dialogue analyses is reiiterative.
That's a pity on many fronts, because there is a significant trail to be traced from Kant through Hegel and into the Twentieth Century about the nature of peace, government and the fact that as Kant observed this is a bloody small planet and we need to figure out how we are all going to live on it without resorting to the criminality of these past centuries. Habermas is clearly focused on such questions. Derrida can clearly see the need to come to terms with them. A more disciplined interviewer might have made this the tome it could have been. God knows we need it.
Rating: 4
Summary: But Read Truth and Justification
Comment: Amazon has really hyped this one for folks with my categories of interest and as a dialogue with supporting essays I found the relative closeness I felt with Habermas and Derrida interesting. The views of both in a discourse over the tragedy of 9/11 were close enough to the reader to touch. The discussion was in my living room. As one who normally reads Habermas for philosophical wisdom and has grown to avoid reading Derrida whenever possible -- what a difference! -- to avoid a loss of wisdom -- I felt this book was far more interview and less philosophy for some reason. The words were smaller than usual. The sentences shorter. There is the tie in with Europe's past of course. There is also the clear note that most American's are missing the bigger picture -- the European picture especially.
Reading this book was the better part of an evening in many ways.
Rating: 4
Summary: A most noble endeavour
Comment: Although the section dedicated to Habermas is brief and Derrida is allowed to make a more dynamic impact, Borradori knows very well what she is doing, and ensures that the end relult is that they both complement each other. These two thinkers might occupy opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to a whole host of issues, but "Philosophy in a Time of Terror" is not about who is right and who is wrong or about the reader choosing his/her favourite.
Habermas lays much of the groundwork, reminding us of the relevance of the Enlightenment, championing notions of the public sphere and communicative action. Reason, rationality and discourse have been, and always will be, essential components of any society wishing to realise the Enlightenment ideal. Just as philosophy was vital at the time of the Enlightenment, so too is it needed today in helping us come to terms with terrorism and in conceptualising a future which re-addresses the notion of citizenship, bestowing upon it a global and cosmopolitan character.
Derrida gets to work on much of what Habermas proposes, questioning received wisdom and conceptual systems through his own deconstructive methods. Focusing on 9/11 as an "event" and putting his own spin on globalization, we are invited to temporarily suspend belief and look at things from a more unfamiliar angle. Yes, some of Derrida's points are questionable, overblown and occasionally ridiculous, but his concerns have much in common with those of Habermas: how to realise a world society where primacy is given to international law and the religious undercurrents of political rhetoric are abandoned once and for all,dangerous as they all too often are.
This book is a reminder to us all of the role played by philosophy in shaping our present and a call for a return to philosophical reflection in order to forge a sustainable future for everybody. It's a start, and credit is due to Habermas, Derrida and of course Borradori for their collaboration. The world may well be awash with pragmatism (much of it needed admittedly) but there has to be a degree of reflexivity if we are going to avoid a groundhog day scenario. I mean, we're all idealists at heart, aren't we?
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Title: The Future of Human Nature by Jurgen Habermas, Hella Beister, Max Pensky ISBN: 0745629865 Publisher: Polity Pr Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Ethics, Institutions, and the Right to Philosophy by Jacques Derrida, Peter Pericles Trifonas ISBN: 0742509036 Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield (Non NBN) Pub. Date: 15 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness (Thinking in Action) by Jacques Derrida ISBN: 0415227127 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: August, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title:Derrida ASIN: B00011V872 Publisher: Zeitgeist Video Pub. Date: 20 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $29.99 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $26.09 |
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Title: The Work of Mourning by Jacques Derrida, Pascale-Anne Brault, Michael Naas ISBN: 0226142817 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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