Appositions of Jacques Derrida and Emmanuel Levinas [Paperback]

This is a book of scintillating intelligence, a book whose range of references, whose extraordinary ethical sensibility and linguistic creativity, set a standard for philosophy that few if any contemporary thinkers other than Derrida and Levinas themselves can match.... On every page, there is Llewelean sparkle. David Wood

If not simple opposition or simple juxtaposition, what is the relation between the writings to which Derrida and Levinas appose their signatures? What would each endorse in the writings of the other? What is it to sign and endorse? How does one assume responsibility, and how does one avoid assuming it? These are some of the probing questions that the prominent Continental philosopher John Llewelyn takes up in Appositions, which brings together and synthesizes 15 essays written during the past 20 years. This book by a powerfully original thinker and first-rate interpreter is essential reading for all those interested in the writings of Derrida and Levinas and in the ways in which their thinking intersects.

Preliminary Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments
Preface
Abbreviations

Introduction: Levinas, Derrida and Others vis-a-vis
Ethical metaphysics
Facial expression
Paradoxical proximity
The back of beyond

ONE: Responsibility with Indecidability
Use and mention
Types and performances
The paradox of quasi-analysis
Sursum corda
Before the question

TWO: Derrida, Mallarme and Anatole
First affirmation
Last testament
Limited incorporation

THREE: The Origin and End of Philosophy
Solid sense
Implex
Resource
Prote philosophia

FOUR: In the Name of Philosophy
In the name of God
Two first philosophies. Levinas and Jankelevitch
The love of wisdom and the wisdom of love

FIVE: What is Orientation in Thinking? Facing the Facts
Reason and sentiment
Individualism
Salvage and salvation
Society
The delimitation of reason alone