Simon Critchley
Biographic Data
| ID | 288967 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Simon Critchley |
| GIVEN NAMES | Simon |
| FAMILY NAME | Critchley |
| SIGNATURE | CRITCHLEY S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Essex |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 53 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 141 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 48 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 5 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Roundtable: On Jacques Derrida's Writings on Money
Violence: An Anthology
Bald: 35 Philosophical Short Cuts
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Happiness? -- I Believe -- What Are Philosophers For? -- The Tragedy of Violence -- Athens in Pieces -- Others -- Philip K. Dick, Garage Philosopher -- Covid Coda -- Index
Tragedy, the Greeks, and Us
From the curator of The New York Times's "The Stone," a provocative and timely exploration into tragedy--how it articulates conflicts and contradiction that we need to address in order to better understand the world we live in. We might think we are through with the past, but the past isn't through with us. Tragedy permits us to come face to face with what we do not know about ourselves but that which makes those selves who we are. Having Been Bo…
We’re all mad: Simon Critchley interview
A Companion to Continental Philosophy
Von Kung-Fu bis Ladypower. 33 Übungen in moderner Philosophie
In diesem Buch gelingt der Gegenwartsphilosophie endlich der Ausgang aus ihrer akademischen Unzugänglichkeit. Ursprünglich veröffentlicht im mittlerweile legendären Philosophie-Blog „The Stone“ der New York Times liegen hier erstmals 33 der wichtigsten Essays auf Deutsch vor. Sie durchleuchten immer ansprechend und nie anspruchslos philosophische Probleme aller Art; die Bandbreite der behandelten Themen reicht von "Klassikern" der philosophischen…
Von Kung-Fu bis Ladypower. 33 Übungen in moderner Philosophie
Modern ethics in 77 arguments: A Stone reader
Modern Ethics in 77 Arguments explores long-standing ethical and moral issues in light of our most urgent dilemmas. Divided into twelve sections, the book opens with a series of broad arguments on existence, human nature and morality. Indeed, "big" questions of the human condition are explored by some of our best-known and most accomplished living philosophers: What is the meaning of our existence? Should we really "do what we love"? How should w…
The Stone reader: Modern Philosophy in 133 Arguments
A collection of influential pieces originally published in the popular New York times column explores subjects ranging from consciousness and morality to the gender divide and gun control, with an introduction about the column's founding and editorial process
Surfaciality: Some Poems by Fernando Pessoa, one by Wallace Stevens, and the brief Sketch of a Poetic Ontology
This paper gives a close reading of a number of poems by Fernando Pessoa, in particular by his ‘heteronym’ Alberto Caeiro. On that basis, a poetic ontology focused on the concept of ‘surfaciality’ is sketched which is then made more concrete through a discussion of the concepts of understanding and interpretation in Heidegger’s Being and Time. As an elaboration of this ontology, the paper concludes with a close reading of important long poem by W…
Levinas and Hitlerism
The Anarchist Turn
Introduction, Simon Critchley I. SUBVERTING BOUNDARIES 1. Black and Red: The Freedom of Equals, Chiara Bottici 2. The Politics of Commensality, Banu Bargu 3. Friendship as Resistance, Todd May 4. An-archy between Metapolitics and Politics, Miguel Abensour II. PAINT IT PINK: ANARCHISM AND FEMINISM 5. Subverting Patriarchy, Subverting Politics: Anarchism as a Practice of Caring, by Mitchell Cowen Verter 6. Of What is Anarcha-feminism the Name?, Cin…
Tough Love: A Response to Richard J. Bernstein’s “Is Politics ‘Practicable’ without Religion?”
In my response to Bernstein, I explain more fully what I mean by a faith of the faithless. My conception of faith is neither a traditional theism nor an evangelical atheism, but the fidelity to an infinite demand. I show that a careful reading of Rousseau exhibits a series of déclages (Althusser’s term)—dislocations or displacements—that are relevant for confronting contemporary political aporiae around the relations between association, law and …
Philip K. Dick, Philosophe S-F
dépression psychotique
Can Religion Make You Free? A Sermon on Diabolical Happiness
From the Preface to the French edition of Une exigence infinie
Like elephant pregnancies, most books have long gestation periods. This one is no exception. It is the distillation into a single, continuous argument of much that I have been thinking about for many years, at least since my time as a student in France in the late 1980s. My aim is very simple: first, to lay out my position with regard to ethics as clearly as possible around the theme of commitment; and, second, to show how that position not only …
Laclau: A Critical Reader
Introduction Section 1: Philosophy: Universality, Singularity, Difference Rodolphe Gasche How Empty Can Empty Be? On the Place of the Universal Fred Dallmayr Laclau and Hegemony: Some (Post) Hegelian Caveats Oliver Marchart Politics and the Ontological Difference: On the Strictly Philosophical in Laclau's Work Rado Riha Politics as the Real of Philosophy Linda Zerilli This Universalism Which Is Not One Section 2: Democracy: Politics, Ethics, Norm…
Tragedy, Rage, Grief and Being an Arsehole
Faith of the Faithless: Experiments in Political Theology
The return to religion has perhaps become the dominant cliche of contemporary theory, which rarely offers anything more than an exaggerated echo of a political reality dominated by religious war. Somehow, the secular age seems to have been replaced by a new era, where political action flows directly from metaphysical conflict. The Faith of the Faithless asks how we might respond. Following Critchley's Infinitely Demanding, this new book builds on…
Theology and organization
This Introduction argues for the importance of theology for the study of organization. It also draws the contours of a possible 'theology of organization'. Theology of organization, as we use it here, does not refer to a study of organization that is rooted in faith, nor does it refer to a study of religious practices in organizations. Instead, theology of organization recognizes that the way we think about and act in organizations is profoundly …
What Is the Institutional Form for Thinking
This article considers the state of the humanities, particularly in disciplines like philosophy, in light of the institutional structure of the university. Arguing that the bureaucratization of the contemporary university is thwarting learning and thinking, the author suggests that we begin to consider academic institutions through lenses less focused on the production of measurable knowledge and more attentive to the practice of teaching as an e…
The catechism of the citizen: Politics, law and religion in, after, with and against Rousseau
Mystical Anarchism
This essay explores the philosophical significance of the history of mystical anarchism for contemporary ethics and politics. It examines the complex relationship between religion and politics, and elaborates the thesis that many of our contemporary political concepts are secularized theological concepts. After a critical discussion of Carl Schmitt's theory of sovereignty and John Gray's critique of liberal humanism, it examines the anarchist pra…
The Book of Dead Philosophers
In this collection of brief lives (and deaths) of nearly two hundred of the world’s greatest thinkers, noted philosopher Simon Critchley creates a register of mortality that is tragic, amusing, absurd, and exemplary. From the self-mocking haikus of Zen masters on their deathbeds to the last words of Christian saints and modern-day sages, this irresistible book contains much to inspire both amusement and reflection. Informed by Critchley’s acute i…
Infinitely demanding: Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance
Five Problems in Levinas’s View of Politics and the Sketch of a Solution to them
This essay attempts to sharpen significantly the critical debate around Levinas’s work by focussing on the question of politics, which is, it is argued, Levinas’s Achilles’heel. Five problems in Levinas’s treatment of politics are identified and discussed: fraternity, monotheism, and rocentrism, the family, and Israel. It is argued that Levinas’s ethics is terribly compromised by his conception of politics. In order to save Levinasian ethics from…
Remarks on Derrida and Habermas
Metaphysics in the Dark: A Response to Richard Rorty and Ernesto Laclau
A metaphysician in the dark, twanging An instrument, twanging a wiry string that gives Sounds passing through sudden rightnesses, wholly Containing the mind, below which it cannot descend, Beyond which it has no will to rise. Wallace Stevens, Of Modern Poetry
Theology and organization
This Introduction argues for the importance of theology for the study of organization. It also draws the contours of a possible 'theology of organization'. Theology of organization, as we use it here, does not refer to a study of organization that is rooted in faith, nor does it refer to a study of religious practices in organizations. Instead, theology of organization recognizes that the way we think about and act in organizations is profoundly …
Comedy and Finitude: Displacing the Tragic-Heroic Paradigm in Philosophy and Psychoanalysis
The Other's Decision in Me: What are the Politics of Friendship
In this article, I attempt to explore the relation between two sets of terms in Derrida's work: friendship and democracy, and ethics and politics. On the basis of a reading of Derrida's interpretation of Blanchot in The Politics of Friendship, I argue that Blanchot's notion of a non-traditional conception of friendship is a reconstruction of Levinas's notion of the ethical relation to the other, which in turn provides the basis for the formalisti…
On Derrida's Specters of Marx
L'A. etudie les hypotheses et les themes secondaires abordes par Derrida dans son ouvrage intitule «Spectres de Marx», dont le theme central est la question messianique. L'A. traite donc de l'injonction a la differance, de la democratie a venir, de justice, de religion, de politique, de l'hegemonie, de la decision et de la Nouvelle Internationale
Il y a — A Dying Stronger than Death (Blanchot with Levinas)
Deconstruction and Pragmatism
Jacques Derrida and Richard Rorty are two of the most famous living philosophers. The current influence of Deconstruction and Pragmatism, two major intellectual traditions, would be unthinkable without their work. This ground-breaking book brings these two thinkers together in a critical confrontation between these two traditions. Derridean deconstruction and Rortian pragmatism are both accused by their enemies of undermining our ideas of truth a…
Surfaciality: Some Poems by Fernando Pessoa, one by Wallace Stevens, and the brief Sketch of a Poetic Ontology
This paper gives a close reading of a number of poems by Fernando Pessoa, in particular by his ‘heteronym’ Alberto Caeiro. On that basis, a poetic ontology focused on the concept of ‘surfaciality’ is sketched which is then made more concrete through a discussion of the concepts of understanding and interpretation in Heidegger’s Being and Time. As an elaboration of this ontology, the paper concludes with a close reading of important long poem by W…
Mystical Anarchism
This essay explores the philosophical significance of the history of mystical anarchism for contemporary ethics and politics. It examines the complex relationship between religion and politics, and elaborates the thesis that many of our contemporary political concepts are secularized theological concepts. After a critical discussion of Carl Schmitt's theory of sovereignty and John Gray's critique of liberal humanism, it examines the anarchist pra…
Sounding desire: On tricky
The Problem of Closure in Derrida (Part Two)
The Problem of Closure in Derrida (Part One)
(1992). The Problem of Closure in Derrida (Part One) Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology: Vol. 23, Derrida, Levinas, and Pragmatism, pp. 3-19
Il y a — A Dying Stronger than Death (Blanchot with Levinas)
On Derrida's Specters of Marx
L'A. etudie les hypotheses et les themes secondaires abordes par Derrida dans son ouvrage intitule «Spectres de Marx», dont le theme central est la question messianique. L'A. traite donc de l'injonction a la differance, de la democratie a venir, de justice, de religion, de politique, de l'hegemonie, de la decision et de la Nouvelle Internationale
Di and Dodi Die
Di and Dodi Die Simon Critchley (bio) It is now two weeks later, 15th September, and I am travelling on the U-Bahn in Frankfurt, which is home for this year. Looking up from my newspaper across the crowded carriage, I see a young Black German woman, about 25 years old. With great deliberateness, she takes a single photocoped sheet of paper out of her bag and begins to read. I return to my newspaper, a fascinating discussion of the failing proposa…
Very little -- almost nothing: Death, Philosophy, Literature
Who Speaks in the Work of Samuel Beckett
Metaphysics in the Dark: A Response to Richard Rorty and Ernesto Laclau
A metaphysician in the dark, twanging An instrument, twanging a wiry string that gives Sounds passing through sudden rightnesses, wholly Containing the mind, below which it cannot descend, Beyond which it has no will to rise. Wallace Stevens, Of Modern Poetry
The Other's Decision in Me: What are the Politics of Friendship
In this article, I attempt to explore the relation between two sets of terms in Derrida's work: friendship and democracy, and ethics and politics. On the basis of a reading of Derrida's interpretation of Blanchot in The Politics of Friendship, I argue that Blanchot's notion of a non-traditional conception of friendship is a reconstruction of Levinas's notion of the ethical relation to the other, which in turn provides the basis for the formalisti…
Comedy and Finitude: Displacing the Tragic-Heroic Paradigm in Philosophy and Psychoanalysis
Sounding desire: On tricky
Remarks on Derrida and Habermas
Continental philosophy: A Very Short Introduction
Persecution Before Exploitation - A Non-Jewish Israel
The overcoming of overcoming: On Dominique Janicaud
Qui Vivra Verra: Obituary for Dominique Janicaud
Qui Vivra Verra—Obituary for Dominique Janicaud
Deconstruction and Pragmatism
Jacques Derrida and Richard Rorty are two of the most famous living philosophers. The current influence of Deconstruction and Pragmatism, two major intellectual traditions, would be unthinkable without their work. This ground-breaking book brings these two thinkers together in a critical confrontation between these two traditions. Derridean deconstruction and Rortian pragmatism are both accused by their enemies of undermining our ideas of truth a…
I Want to Die, I Hate my Life -- Phaedra's Malaise
I Want to Die, I Hate my Life--Phaedra's Malaise Simon Critchley (bio) Faced with the ever-enlarging incoherence of the present, characterised by war without end, the increasingly frantic shoring up of the imperium the deepening contagion of ethnic, religious and civil conflict, and the fatuous theologization of political life with the categories of good and evil, I would like to turn to 17th Century neo-classical French drama, in particular the …
Five Problems in Levinas’s View of Politics and the Sketch of a Solution to them
This essay attempts to sharpen significantly the critical debate around Levinas’s work by focussing on the question of politics, which is, it is argued, Levinas’s Achilles’heel. Five problems in Levinas’s treatment of politics are identified and discussed: fraternity, monotheism, and rocentrism, the family, and Israel. It is argued that Levinas’s ethics is terribly compromised by his conception of politics. In order to save Levinasian ethics from…
I Want to Die, I Hate My Life--Phaedra's Malaise
My focus is on the character of Phaedra and the nature of her malaise. I begin by trying to elicit the dramatic pattern of Phaedra's confessions of her desire, a desire that produces a guilty subjectivity that I illustrate with reference to Augustine's Confessions. I go on to describe Phaedra's existence as defined by the fact that, unlike the conventional tragic hero, she is unable to die, that existence is, for her, without exit. I pursue this …
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida Simon Critchley (bio) A vital measure of the influence of a thinker on a discipline is the extent to which they transform its customs, protocols and practices in a way that makes it difficult to conceive how things were done before they appeared on the scene. Such transformations are usually simply incorporated into the discipline and presupposed by those who come after. This is why we often have a thankless relation to the most i…
Poetry as philosophy - on Wallace Stevens
In this essay, I defend the philosophical significance of the poetry of Wallace Stevens and try to show how it can help in returning us to that which is normally passed over in epistemological discussions: the phenomenon of the world
Things merely are: Philosophy in the poetry of Wallace Stevens
This book is an invitation to read poetry. Simon Critchley argues that poetry enlarges life with a range of observation, power of expression and attention to language that eclipses any other medium. In an extended engagement with the poetry of Wallace Stevens, Critchley reveals that poetry also contains deep and important philosophical insight. Above all, he argues for a 'poetic epistemology' that enables us to recast the philosophical problem of…
Forgetfulness Must: Politics and Filiation in Blanchot and Derrida
Philosophy (35 works) · Epistemology (21 works) · Philosophy (20 works) · Political science (18 works) · Law (17 works) · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism (17 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Art (15 works) · Politics (12 works) · Philosophy (11 works)