Alienation After Derrida

245 Pages·2010·1.63 MB·English

by  Simon Skempton

Alienation After Derrida
Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy
Series Editor: James Fieser, University of Tennessee at Martin, USA
Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy is a major monograph series from
Continuum. The series features fi rst-class scholarly research monographs
across the fi eld of Continental philosophy. Each work makes a major
contribution to the fi eld of philosophical research.
Adorno’s Concept of Life, Alastair Morgan
Badiou, Marion and St Paul, Adam Miller
Being and Number in Heidegger’s Thought, Michael Roubach
Deleuze and Guattari, Fadi Abou-Rihan
Deleuze and the Genesis of Representation, Joe Hughes
Deleuze and the Unconscious, Christian Kerslake
Deleuze, Guattari and the Production of the New, edited by Simon O’Sullivan
and Stephen Zepke
Derrida, Simon Morgan Wortham
Derrida and Disinterest, Sean Gaston
The Domestication of Derrida, Lorenzo Fabbri
Encountering Derrida, edited by Simon Morgan Wortham and Allison Weiner
Foucault’s Heidegger, Timothy Rayner
Gadamer and the Question of the Divine, Walter Lammi
Heidegger and a Metaphysics of Feeling, Sharin N. Elkholy
Heidegger and Aristotle, Michael Bowler
Heidegger and Logic, Greg Shirley
Heidegger and Philosophical Atheology, Peter S. Dillard
Heidegger Beyond Deconstruction, Michael Lewis
Heidegger, Politics and Climate Change, Ruth Irwin
Heidegger’s Early Philosophy, James Luchte
Levinas and Camus, Tal Sessler
Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology, Kirk M. Besmer
Nietzsche, Nihilism and the Philosophy of the Future, edited by Jeffrey Metzger
Nietzsche’s Ethical Theory, Craig Dove
Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, edited by James Luchte
The Philosophy of Exaggeration, Alexander Garcia Düttmann
Sartre’s Phenomenology, David Reisman
Time and Becoming in Nietzsche’s Thought, Robin Small
Who’s Afraid of Deleuze and Guattari? Gregg Lambert
Žižek and Heidegger, Thomas Brockelman
Alienation After Derrida
Simon Skempton
Continuum International Publishing Group
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© Simon Skempton, 2010
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-4411-0474-8
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For Anna
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Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Derrida and Alienation 1
Inalienable Alienation 2
The Present 5
The Proper 10
The Human 16
The Ensuing Investigation 17
1 Alienation and Presence: A Historical Sketch 21
Origins: The Bible and Neo-Platonism 21
The Corruption of Nature: Rousseau 24
Reintegration through the Aesthetic: Schiller 26
Nostalgia for the Unity of Being: The Early German Romantics 31
Knowledge as Alienation: Schelling 33
Knowledge as Reconciliation: Hegel 35
The Projection of the Human Essence: Feuerbach 36
Singularity and Authenticity: Stirner 38
Production and Commodifi cation: Marx 40
Reifi cation: Lukács 41
Aspects of Alienation 44
2 Difference and Alienation in Hegel 49
The Proximity of Derrida and Hegel 49
Externalization and Estrangement 53
Organicism or Critique 58
Substance and Subject 67
Appropriation of the Other 73
The Transcendental Remainder 75
Actual Infi nity 82
Unalienated Mind 90
3 Determinability and Objectifi cation in Marx 96
Capitalist Différance 96
Essential Relationality 99
Types of Objectifi cation 108
viii Contents
Humanizing Appropriation 120
Universal An-economy 123
4 Heidegger’s Deconstruction of Ontological Alienation 127
The Presence of Alienation 127
Presence as Objectifi cation 134
Technicity 143
Infi nite Finitude 146
Owning 150
5 Deconstructive De-alienation 160
Différance and Praxis 160
The Other’s Other: The Alienation of Alterity 170
Irreducibility of the Political 178
Irreconcilable De-alienation 180
Conclusion 193
Notes 203
Bibliography 221
Index 227
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Peter Osborne under whose supervision the fi rst
draft of this work was written. I would also like to thank Peter Hallward
and Simon Glendinning for their useful and encouraging comments on
the text.