Thinking through French Philosophy

Leonard Lawlor

Description

A powerful and original engagement with France's most influential philosophers.

". . . no other book undertakes to relate all these French philosophers to each other the way that [Lawlor] does, brilliantly." —François Raffoul

For many, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Gilles Deleuze represent one of the greatest movements in French philosophy. But these philosophers and their works did not materialize without a philosophical heritage. In Thinking through French Philosophy, Leonard Lawlor shows how the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty formed an important current in sustaining the development of structuralism and post-structuralism. Seeking the "point of diffraction," or the specific ideas and concepts that link Derrida, Foucault, and Deleuze, Lawlor discovers differences and convergences in these thinkers who worked the same terrain. Major themes include metaphysics, archaeology, language and documentation, expression and interrogation, and the very experience of thinking. Lawlor's focus on the experience of the question brings out critical differences in immanence and transcendence. This illuminating and provocative book brings new vitality to debates on contemporary French philosophy.

Preliminary Table of Contents:

Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: The Being of the Question
1. "If Theory is Gray, Green is the Golden Tree of Life": Philosophy and Non-Philosophy since Hyppolite
2. The Chiasm and the Fold: An Introduction to the Philosophical Concept of Archeology
3. Eliminating Some Confusion: Merleau-Ponty and Derrida on Being and Writing
4. The Legacy of Husserl's "The Origin of Geometry": The Limits of Phenomenology in Merleau-Ponty and Derrida
5. The End of Phenomenology: Expressionism in Merleau-Ponty and Deleuze
6. The End of Ontology: Interrogation in Merleau-Ponty and Deleuze
7. The Beginnings of Post-Modernism: Phenomenology and Bergsonism, Derrida and Deleuze
8. The Beginnings of Thought: The Fundamental Experience in Derrida and Deleuze
Conclusion:The Point of Diffraction
Appendix Interview for Journal Phänomenologie
Notes
Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Épistémologie
• Philosophie de l'esprit
• Movements
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• Phenomenology
• Continental

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 20 juin 2003
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253000651
• Langue: English

Extrait

Thinking through French Philosophy
Studies in Continental Thought
John Sallis, general editor
Consulting Editors
Robert Bernasconi
Rudolph Bernet
John D. Caputo
David Carr
Edward S. Casey
Hubert Dreyfus
Don Ihde
David Farrell Krell
Lenore Langsdorf
Alphonso Lingis
J. N. Mohanty
Mary Rawlinson
Tom Rockmore
Calvin O. Schrag
† Reiner Schürmann
Charles E. Scott
Thomas Sheehan
Robert Sokolowski
Bruce W. Wilshire
David Wood
William L. McBride
LEONARD LAWLOR
Thinking through French Philosophy
The Being of the Question
Publication of this book is made possible in part with the assistance of a Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency that supports research, education, and public programming in the humanities.
This book is a publication of
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© 2003 by Leonard Lawlor
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No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
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Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lawlor, Leonard, date
Thinking through French philosophy: the being of the question / Leonard Lawlor.
       p. cm. —(Studies in Continental thought)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
   ISBN 0-253-34225-2 (cloth: alk. paper) —ISBN 0-253-21591-9 (pbk.: alk. paper)
  1. Poststructuralism. 2. Philosophy, French—20th century. 3. Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, 1908–1961. I. Title. II. Series.
    B2424.S75 L39 2003
    194—dc21
2002013860
1 2 3 4 5 08 07 06 05 04 03
For Jennifer
Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: The Being of the Question
1. “If Theory Is Gray, Green Is the Golden Tree of Life”: Philosophy and Non-philosophy since Hyppolite
2. The Chiasm and the Fold: An Introduction to the Philosophical Concept of Archeology
3. Eliminating Some Confusion: The Relation of Being and Writing in Merleau-Ponty and Derrida
4. The Legacy of Husserl’s “The Origin of Geometry”: The Limits of Phenomenology in Merleau-Ponty and Derrida
5. The End of Phenomenology: Expressionism in Merleau-Ponty and Deleuze
6. The End of Ontology: Interrogation in Merleau-Ponty and Deleuze
7. The Beginnings of Post-modernism: Phenomenology and Bergsonism, Derrida and Deleuze
8. The Beginnings of Thought: The Fundamental Experience in Derrida and Deleuze
Conclusion: The Point of Diffraction
Appendix 1. Interview for Journal Phänomenologie
Appendix 2. Gilles Deleuze, “Reversing Platonism”
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
Although this book is much more than an investigation of Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy, I have always referred to it as my “Merleau-Ponty book.” Thus I must acknowledge the help and inspiration from my friends in the Merleau-Ponty world. First and foremost, I must thank Ted Toadvine, whose 1996 Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Memphis ( Contradiction, Expression, and Chiasm: The Development of Intersubjectivity in Maurice Merleau-Ponty ) made me reflect on Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy seriously for the first time. Then I must thank my friends at Chiasmi International , Renaud Barbaras and Mauro Carbone. And finally I must thank these perennial Merleau-Ponteans: Pat Burke, Edward S. Casey, Mike Dillon, Fred Evans, and Hugh J. Silverman. I am especially grateful for the comments David Pettigrew and François Raffoul gave to me concerning an earlier draft of this book; their comments really allowed me to clarify what I was doing in this book. My thanks also to Jay Julian, who proofread the manuscript and composed the index. As always, I appreciate the support my colleagues and students in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Memphis have always given to me.
All of the essays collected here have been revised for this volume. The order of the chapters does not correspond to the chronology of the essays. The chronological order of the writing is the following: spring 1994: “Eliminating Some Confusion”; summer 1995: “The End of Phenomenology”; winter 1998: “The End of Ontology”; summer 1998: “If Theory Is Gray”; winter 1999: “The Beginnings of Post-modernism”; autumn 1999: “The Legacy of Husserl’s ‘The Origin of Geometry’”; spring 2001: “The Chiasm and the Fold”; summer 2001: “The Beginnings of Thought”; summer 2001: Interview for Journal Phänomenologie . The revision of all the essays occurred during the autumn of 2001.
“‘If Theory Is Gray, Green Is the Golden Tree of Life’“: Philosophy and Non-philosophy since Hyppolite” has never been published before.
“The Chiasm and the Fold: An Introduction to the Philosophical Concept of Archeology” is an expanded version of an article in Chiasmi International 4 (2002), pp. 105–16. It was first presented at the conference “Phenomenology in the Nordic Countries” in Copenhagen, Denmark, May 31, 2001. It was presented again at the annual meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, October 5, 2001, in Baltimore, Maryland. And it was presented a third time at the conference “Merleau-Ponty aux Frontières de l’Invisible,” held at the Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, March 1–2, 2002. “The Chiasm and the Fold” is reprinted here with the permission of the Associazione Culturale Mimesis, Milan.
“Eliminating Some Confusion: The Relation of Being and Writing in Merleau-Ponty and Derrida” first appeared in Écart and Différance: Merleau-Ponty and Derrida on Seeing and Writing , edited by M. C. Dillon (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1997), pp. 71–93. “Eliminating Some Confusion” is reprinted here with the permission of Humanity Books (Prometheus Books).
“The Legacy of Husserl’s ‘The Origin of Geometry’: The Limits of Phenomenology in Merleau-Ponty and Derrida” first appeared in Merleau-Ponty’s Reading of Husserl , edited by Ted Toadvine and Lester Embree (Dordrecht: Kluwer), pp. 201–26. It was first presented at a Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology Symposium on Merleau-Ponty and Husserl, Florida Atlantic University, Delray Beach, Florida, November 19, 1999. Then it was presented at the British Society for Phenomenology, Oxford, England, April 7–9, 2000. It was presented a third time at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, École Normale Supérieure, Paris, April 28, 2000. And finally it was presented at the International Phenomenology Symposium, Perugia, Italy, July 20, 2000. “The Legacy of Husserl’s ‘The Origin of Geometry’“ is reprinted here with the permission of Kluwer Academic Publishers.
“The End of Phenomenology: Expressionism in Merleau-Ponty and Deleuze” first appeared in Continental Philosophy Review (formerly Man and World ) 31, no. 1 (January 1998), pp. 15–34. An earlier version of this essay was first presented at the Merleau-Ponty Circle, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, September 23, 1995. “The End of Phenomenology” is reprinted here with the permission of Kluwer Academic Publishers.
“The End of Ontology: Interrogation in Merleau-Ponty and Deleuze” first appeared in Chiasmi International: Trilingual Studies Concerning the Thought of Merleau-Ponty 1 (1999), pp. 233–52. It was first presented at the conference L’Eredita delle Filosofia di Maurice Merleau-Ponty nel Pensiero Contemporaneo, held March 12–14, 1998, at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy, and then for a second time at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Denver, Colorado, October 9, 1998. “The End of Ontology” is reprinted here with the permission of the Associazione Culturale Mimesis, Milan.
“The Beginnings of Post-modernism: Phenomenology and Bergsonism, Derrida and Deleuze” first appeared in Confluences: Phenomenology and Postmodernity, Environment, Race, Gender , Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh (1999), pp. 53–68. It was first presented at the “Confluences: Phenomenology and Postmodernity, Environment, Race, Gender,” at the Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, March 12, 1999. It was then presented at the conference Rhizomatics, Genealogy, and Deconstruction at Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, May 22, 1999. “The Beginnings of Post-modernism” is reprinted here with the permission of the Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center, Duquesne University.
“The Beginnings of Thought: The Fundamental Experience in Derrida and Deleuze” is an expanded version of an essay that is forthcoming in Between Deleuze and Derrida , edited by Paul Patton and John Protevi (Continuum Press, 2003). A shorter and simplified version of this essay was first presented as a lecture at the Universiteit voor Humanistiek, Utrecht, Netherlands, on May 30, 2001, with the title “The Experience of Force, the Experience of the Other: The Philosophy of Difference in Deleuze and Derrida,” then at the University of Vienna on March 5, 2002, for the Grüppe Phänomenologie, and finally at Central European University, Budapest, on March 6, 2002. This essay is based on the three Deleuze lectures that I have given in my Introduction to Philosophy classes at the University of Memphis since autumn 1996.
Appendix 1 was originally published in German as “Ende der Phänomenologie? Interview mit Leonard Lawlor,” conducted by Silvia Stoller and Gerhard Unterthurner for Journal Phänomenolo