Exemplarity and Chosenness: Rosenzweig and Derrida on the Nation of Philosophy

296 Pages·2008·2.521 MB·English

by  Dana Hollander

ExEmplarity and ChosEnnEss

Cultural Memory
in
the
Present
Mieke Bal and Hent de Vries, Editors

ExEmplarity and ChosEnnEss
Rosenzweig and Derrida on the Nation of Philosophy
Dana Hollander
stanford UnivErsity prEss
stanford, California
stanford University press
stanford, California
© 2008 by the Board of trustees of the leland stanford Junior University. all
rights reserved.
no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of
stanford University press.
printed in the United states of america on acid-free, archival-quality paper
library of Congress Cataloging-in-publication data
hollander, dana.
Exemplarity and chosenness : rosenzweig and derrida on the nation of
philosophy / dana hollander.
p. cm. — (Cultural memory in the present)
includes bibliographical references and index.
isBn 978-0-8047-5521-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. rosenzweig, Franz, 1886–1929. 2. derrida, Jacques. i. title.
B3327.r64h65 2008
194—dc22
2007029728
typeset by inari information services in 11/13.5 adobe Garamond
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
List of Abbreviations xiii
introduction 1
part i individUality and UnivErsality
1 on rosenzweig’s reception of the philosophy of
hermann Cohen: individuality, Jewish Election,
and the infinitesimal 13
part ii ExEmplarity
2 derrida’s Early Considerations of historicism and relativism 43
3 Thematizations of language: Between translatability
and singularity 74
part iii philosophiCal nationality
4 on the philosophical ambition of national affirmation 101
5 nationality, Judaism, and the sacredness of language 118
part iv mEssianiCity
6 time and history in rosenzweig:
From temporal Existence to Eternity 159
7 specters of messiah 184
Appendix: Jacques Derrida’s Seminar Cycle “Nationalité et
nationalisme philosophiques” 205
Notes 207
Index 255

To my mother, Vita Hollander,
and in memory of my father, Zander Hollander