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Critchley studied philosophy at the ] (BA 1985, PhD 1988,) and at the ] (M.Phil. 1987). Among his teachers were ], Jay Bernstein, Frank Cioffi, ] and ]. His M.Phil. thesis dealt with the problem of the overcoming of metaphysics in ] and ]; his Ph.D. dissertation was on the ethics of deconstruction in ] and ]. Critchley studied philosophy at the ] (BA 1985, PhD 1988,) and at the ] (M.Phil. 1987). Among his teachers were ], Jay Bernstein, Frank Cioffi, ] and ]. His M.Phil. thesis dealt with the problem of the overcoming of metaphysics in ] and ]; his Ph.D. dissertation was on the ethics of deconstruction in ] and ].


Following a period as a university fellow at ], Critchley was appointed a lecturer in philosophy at Essex in 1989, becoming reader in philosophy in 1995, and professor in 1999. He was director of the university's Centre for Theoretical Studies and collaborated closely with ]. Critchley was president of the British Society for Phenomenology from 1994-99. In 1997 and 2001 he held a Humboldt Research Fellowship in philosophy at Frankfurt. Between 1998-2004, he was a programme director of the ], Paris. In 2006-7 he was a scholar at the ] in Los Angeles. Since 2004 Critchley has been professor of philosophy at the ]. He held the position of chair in philosophy at the New School from 2008–2011, and became the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy in 2011. He has held visiting professorships at numerous universities, including Sydney (2000), Notre Dame (2002), ] (2005) and at the ] (2006). In 2009 he was appointed a part-time professor of philosophy at ] in the Netherlands, where he runs a and teaches in philosophy and liberal arts. Critchley is also a professor of philosophy at the ] in ], Switzerland. Following a period as a university fellow at ], Critchley was appointed a lecturer in philosophy at Essex in 1989, becoming reader in philosophy in 1995, and professor in 1999. Since 2004 Critchley has been professor of philosophy at the ]. He held the position of chair in philosophy at the New School from 2008–2011, and became the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy in 2011. He has held visiting professorships at numerous universities, including Sydney (2000), Notre Dame (2002), ] (2005) and at the ] (2006). In 2009 he was appointed a part-time professor of philosophy at ] in the Netherlands, where he runs a and teaches in philosophy and liberal arts. Critchley is also a professor of philosophy at the ] in ], Switzerland.


==Selected Works==
Critchley is "chief philosopher" of the ], a semi-fictitious avant-garde network that surfaces through proclamations, "denunciations" and live events. He has collaborated closely with the novelist ] on projects including the society's Declaration on Inauthenticity<ref>The International Necronautical Society's </ref> and their joint publications on Joyce<ref> by Simon Critchley and Tom McCarthy</ref> and Shakespeare.<ref> by Simon Critchley and Tom McCarthy</ref> At an event at the Tate Britain art gallery two lecturers purporting to be Critchley and McCarthy were, in mischievous keeping with the inauthentic theme, played by actors.<ref>Tate Triennial 2009 Prologue 4: Borders: Simon Critchley & Tom McCarthy's </ref> The Declaration of Inauthenticity was presented at the opening of the Athens Biennale by Greek actors in June 2009. Critchley also frequently collaborates with his wife, the American psychoanalyst ]. Critchley has also worked with the French artist ] and the British conceptual artist ].

==Works==


===The Ethics of Deconstruction (1992)=== ===The Ethics of Deconstruction (1992)===
Critchley’s first book was ''The Ethics of Deconstruction: Derrida and Levinas'' (Blackwell, 1992), which became an acclaimed source on deconstruction and was the first book to argue for an ethical dimension to deconstruction. A second expanded edition was published in 1999 by Edinburgh University Press. Rather than being concerned with deconstruction in terms of the contradictions inherent in any text — an approach typical of the early Derrida and those in literary criticism aiming to extract a critical method for an application to literature — Critchley concerns himself with the philosophical context necessary for an understanding of the ethics of deconstructive reading. Far from being some sort of value-free nihilism or textual free-play, Critchley showed the ethical impetus that was driving Derrida’s work. His claim was that Derrida’s understanding of ethics has to be understood in relation to his engagement with the work of Levinas and the book attempts to lay out the details of their philosophical confrontation. Critchley’s first book was ''The Ethics of Deconstruction: Derrida and Levinas'' (Blackwell, 1992), which argued for an ethical dimension to deconstruction. Rather than being concerned with deconstruction in terms of the contradictions inherent in any text — an approach typical of the early Derrida and those in literary criticism aiming to extract a critical method for an application to literature — Critchley concerns himself with the philosophical context necessary for an understanding of the ethics of deconstructive reading. Far from being some sort of value-free nihilism or textual free-play, Critchley showed the ethical impetus that was driving Derrida’s work. His claim was that Derrida’s understanding of ethics has to be understood in relation to his engagement with the work of Levinas and the book attempts to lay out the details of their philosophical confrontation.


===Very Little... Almost Nothing (1997)=== ===Very Little... Almost Nothing (1997)===
Critchley’s second book, ''Very Little... Almost Nothing'' (Routledge, 1997) develops in a very different direction and shows his concern with the relation between philosophy and literature and the problem of nihilism. A second edition with additional material and a new preface was published in 2004. At the centre of Very Little... Almost Nothing is the problem of the meaning of life and what sense can be made of this problem in the absence of any religious belief. By way of a series of ‘lectures’ on Maurice Blanchot, Samuel Beckett, Stanley Cavell and romanticism, Critchley argues for a conception of meaninglessness understood as the achievement of the everyday, a view which, he thinks, redeems us from the need for religious redemption. Critchley’s second book, ''Very Little... Almost Nothing'' (Routledge, 1997) develops in a very different direction and shows his concern with the relation between philosophy and literature and the problem of nihilism.

===Ethics-Politics-Subjectivity (1999)===
''Ethics-Politics-Subjectivity'' (Verso, 1999) is a collection of essays that includes his debate with Richard Rorty, as well as series of essays on Derrida, Levinas, Jacques Lacan, Jean-Luc Nancy. These essays also show a pronounced political and psychoanalytic turn to Critchley’s thinking. A new edition of the book appeared in Verso’s Radical Thinkers series in 2009.


===Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2001)=== ===Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2001)===
''Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction'' (Oxford University Press, 2001), is both an introduction to that tradition of thinking and an essay in meta-philosophy, which lays out the way in which Critchley sees the role of theory and reflection. It has been translated into eleven languages. In the book, Critchley addresses the perennial question of the two major Western philosophical traditions, that of analytical and continental philosophy. Critchley tries to avoid sectarianism, and argues that the professional opposition between analytic and Continental philosophy is something that needs to be transcended. Critchley accepts that there is risk within continental philosophy of obscurantism, just as there is a risk of scientism in much analytic philosophy. But the primary purpose of philosophy is to understand ourselves, our world and, as Hegel puts it, to comprehend one’s time in thought. Critchley offers the example of the ‘will of God’ as the prime example of obscurantism, but within continental philosophy also the ‘drives’ in ], ‘archetypes’ in Carl Jung, the ‘real’ in Jaques Lacan, ‘power’ in Michel Foucault, ‘différance’ in Jaques Derrida, the ‘trace of God’ in Emmanuel Levinas, and the ‘epochal withdrawal of being in and as history’ in Martin Heidegger. ''Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction'' (Oxford University Press, 2001), is both an introduction to that tradition of thinking and an essay in meta-philosophy, which lays out the way in which Critchley sees the role of theory and reflection. It has been translated into eleven languages. In the book, Critchley addresses the perennial question of the two major Western philosophical traditions, that of analytical and continental philosophy. Critchley tries to avoid sectarianism, and argues that the professional opposition between analytic and Continental philosophy is something that needs to be transcended. Critchley accepts that there is risk within continental philosophy of obscurantism, just as there is a risk of scientism in much analytic philosophy. But the primary purpose of philosophy is to understand ourselves, our world and, as Hegel puts it, to comprehend one’s time in thought. Critchley offers the example of the ‘will of God’ as the prime example of obscurantism, but within continental philosophy also the ‘drives’ in ], ‘archetypes’ in Carl Jung, the ‘real’ in Jaques Lacan, ‘power’ in Michel Foucault, ‘différance’ in Jaques Derrida, the ‘trace of God’ in Emmanuel Levinas, and the ‘epochal withdrawal of being in and as history’ in Martin Heidegger.

===''On Humour'' (2002)===
Since 2000, Critchley has turned his attention to what he calls ‘impossible objects’: humour, poetry and music. His ''On Humour'' (Routledge, 2002) continues the meditation on nihilism begun in Very Little…Almost Nothing; but he continues it in a very different key, analysing the meaning and importance of humour. Critchley argues that humour is an oblique phenomenology of ordinary bringing about a change of situation that exerts a powerful critical function. ''On Humour'' has been translated into eleven languages and has exerted considerable influence over debates around the role of humour in contemporary art practice.

===Things Merely Are (2005)===
In ''Things Merely Are'' (Routledge, 2005), Critchley examines the relation between philosophy and poetry through an extended meditation on the poetry of Wallace Stevens. Critchley’s particular focus in Stevens’ very late poems, which attempt to describe what poetry can and cannot say about a subject-independent reality.<ref>See of ''Things Merely Are.''</ref> Critchley is referenced in the commentary on Stevens's poem ]. The book also contains Critchley’s influential essay on Terence Malick’s ''The Thin Red Line.''


===Infinitely Demanding (2007)=== ===Infinitely Demanding (2007)===
''Infinitely Demanding'' (Verso, 2007) is the most systematic overview of Critchley's philosophical position. It combines a meta-ethics based on the concepts of approval and demand with a phenomenology of ethical experience and ethical subjectivity. At the centre of the book is a theory of ethical subjectivity based on the relation to an infinite demand. Critchley extends his analysis into discussions of aesthetics and sublimation and into political theory and practice. Critchley argues for an ethically committed political ]. Infinitely Demanding has been translated into 8 languages. The book has led to some heated polemics, notably with ] (see below, the ]). “Infinitely Demanding” is the topic of a special issue of the journal Critical Horizons (August 2009). ''Infinitely Demanding'' (Verso, 2007) is the most systematic overview of Critchley's philosophical position. It combines a meta-ethics based on the concepts of approval and demand with a phenomenology of ethical experience and ethical subjectivity. At the centre of the book is a theory of ethical subjectivity based on the relation to an infinite demand. Critchley extends his analysis into discussions of aesthetics and sublimation and into political theory and practice. Critchley argues for an ethically committed political ]. Infinitely Demanding has been translated into 8 languages. The book has led to some heated polemics, notably with ] (see below, the ]). “Infinitely Demanding” is the topic of a special issue of the journal Critical Horizons (August 2009).


===On Heidegger’s Being and Time (2008)=== ==The Book of Dead Philosophers (2009)===
This volume (Routledge, 2008) combines Reiner Schürmann's lectures at the New School for Social Research on Heidegger’s ''Being and Time'' with Critchley’s New School lectures on the relation between Heidegger and Husserl and his own interpretation of Being and Time. Where Critchley argues that we must see Being and Time as a radicalization of Husserlian phenomenology, Reiner Schürmann's proposal is to read Heidegger ‘backward’, arguing that Heidegger’s later work is the key to unraveling Being and Time. Critchley concludes the volume with an extended critique of Heidegger’s concept of authenticity.

===The Book of Dead Philosophers (2009)===
An extended defense of the idea that to philosophize is to learn how to die, ''The Book of Dead Philosophers'' was published by Granta in the UK (2008), Vintage in the US (2009) and Melbourne University Press in Australia (2008). It has been translated into 17 languages. “The Book of Dead Philosophers” was widely reviewed and discussed (see below). It was on The New York Times Best-Seller List in March 2009 and was a top ten bestseller in Greece in Summer 2009. The aim of “The Book of Dead Philosophers” is to examine, defend and refine the ideal of the philosophical death in the context of a culture like ours that is defined by a denial of death. However, the deeper intention of the book is to challenge and revise the way we think about the history of philosophy. More specifically, the book tries to conceive of the history of philosophy as a history of philosophers and thereby rethink the way in which approach the relation between the activity of philosophy and an individual life, between conceptuality and biography. An extended defense of the idea that to philosophize is to learn how to die, ''The Book of Dead Philosophers'' was published by Granta in the UK (2008), Vintage in the US (2009) and Melbourne University Press in Australia (2008). It has been translated into 17 languages. “The Book of Dead Philosophers” was widely reviewed and discussed (see below). It was on The New York Times Best-Seller List in March 2009 and was a top ten bestseller in Greece in Summer 2009. The aim of “The Book of Dead Philosophers” is to examine, defend and refine the ideal of the philosophical death in the context of a culture like ours that is defined by a denial of death. However, the deeper intention of the book is to challenge and revise the way we think about the history of philosophy. More specifically, the book tries to conceive of the history of philosophy as a history of philosophers and thereby rethink the way in which approach the relation between the activity of philosophy and an individual life, between conceptuality and biography.


===Der Katechismus des Bürgers (2008)===
This small volume (Diaphanes, Berlin, 2008) on the problem of politics and religion in Rousseau was first published in German.


===How to Stop Living and Start Worrying (2010)===
''How to Stop Living and Start Worrying'' (Polity, 2010), a sort of anti-self-help book, is a series of conversations between Critchley and ] from 2009 and 2010, originally based on Swedish television series. The conversations are intended to provide an overview and introduction to Critchley's life and work. They are based around a series topics: life, death, love, humour and authenticity. The volume also contains a discussion with Tom McCarthy.

===Impossible Objects (2011)===
A collection of interviews with Critchley over the past 10 years, edited by Carl Cederström and Todd Kesselman, published by Polity Press in 2011.

Recent Reviews:
* Steven Poole, Et cetera: non-fiction reviews
* Review for PopMatters.com

===International Necronautical Society (2012)===
The International Society Necronautical has been nourished by the faded avant-garde movements of the last century, whether artistic, cultural or political. A German volume of texts gathers a selection of official communications from the INS from 1999 to 2010; meticulously documenting their manifestos, reports, statements, meetings, and trials from 1999 onwards. “We are sometimes asked: How do I join? How does one become a necronaut? Wrong question. As Paragraph Three, lines five and six of the INS’s First Manifesto make clear, willfully pilfering and re-using the tired language of deconstruction, ‘We are all necronauts, always, already.’ Our mission is to disseminate that fact: not as conceptual knowledge but rather in the way that Molly Bloom fills her husband’s mouth with seedcake, then repeats that moment, with a silent Yes.” An English volume from the INS, was published by Sternberg Press in October 2012.

===The Faith of the Faithless (2012)===

From the paradox of politics and religion in Rousseau to the political stakes of the return to St. Paul in the work of Heidegger, Taubes, Agamben and Badiou, via explorations of politics and original sin in the work of ] and ], Critchley examines whether there can be a faith of the faithless, a belief for unbelievers. Expanding on his debate with Slavoj Žižek, Critchley concludes with a meditation on the question of violence and the limits of non-violence. ''The Faith of the Faithless - Experiments in Political Theology'' will be published by Verso in 2012.<br/> He argues that ] democracy is the political expression of ].<ref></ref>

Recent Reviews:
*
*
*.
*
*
*
*
*
*

===The Hamlet Doctrine (forthcoming)===
Critchley is currently finishing a book on Hamlet with Jamieson Webster that will deal with the play in the light of various 'outsider' interpretations, such as those of Carl Schmitt, ], ], Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, and Lacan.

===Work in Progress (forthcoming)===
Critchley is currently also completing an, as yet, unnamed short book of conversations with ].

==Recent press for ''The Faith of the Faithless''==
*
* (August 22, 2012)
*
* (August 15, 2012)
* at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
* The New Yorker reviews the ''The Faith of the Faithless''.


==The Stone== ==The Stone==
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On May 21, 2011 ''The New York Times'' brought back The Stone, due to its widespread popularity. In the first new entry since January, Critchley discusses the aims of the column and the role of philosophy in contemporary culture (). Critchley's recent contributions to the The Stone include , a collaboration with Jamieson Webster that traces the logic of action in Shakespeare's Hamlet and , a discussion of Sophocles and the so-called “tragedy" of the European debt crisis. More recently Critchley contributed a three-part essay, and an article titled . The latter received widespread attention and reactions from the Mormon community varied. Several articles were written in response including, , , , , and . On May 21, 2011 ''The New York Times'' brought back The Stone, due to its widespread popularity. In the first new entry since January, Critchley discusses the aims of the column and the role of philosophy in contemporary culture (). Critchley's recent contributions to the The Stone include , a collaboration with Jamieson Webster that traces the logic of action in Shakespeare's Hamlet and , a discussion of Sophocles and the so-called “tragedy" of the European debt crisis. More recently Critchley contributed a three-part essay, and an article titled . The latter received widespread attention and reactions from the Mormon community varied. Several articles were written in response including, , , , , and .


====The Guardian series on Heidegger's ''Being and Time''===
On December 23, 2012 Simon Critchley published in the Stone, which is a kind of sermon on the notion of faith and Dostoevsky's well known Grand Inquisitor scene in '']'' concerning "faith, freedom, happiness and the diabolic satisfaction of our desires."

==Other work==
*
*
* March 6, 2006.
*Critchley has had essays published in ] magazine, including a critique of then President-Elect ].<ref></ref>

===The Guardian series on Heidegger's ''Being and Time''===
In an essay series<ref>, In an essay series<ref>,
, ,
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* John Douglas Millar on art and politics according to Simon Critchley for Art Monthly. * John Douglas Millar on art and politics according to Simon Critchley for Art Monthly.
* An interview with the Korean newspaper Hankookilbo. * An interview with the Korean newspaper Hankookilbo.

==Live talks and interviews==

===Video===
* (July 26, 2012)
* A discussion of Critchley's recent book, ''The Faith of the Faithless'' along with his forthcoming work on tragedy (July 21, 2012)
* Simon Critchley and conceptual artist Liam Gillick discuss the intersection of their work concerning the topic of utopianism, at the Brooklyn Museum, May 10, 2012.
* Simon Critchley's keynote talk at the Institute for Cultural Inquiry for the Preoccupied conference in Berlin, June 2012.
* Simon Critchley speaks in conjunction with the exhibition "If We Can’t Get It Together" at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto, Canada (January 23, 2009).
* Edited by Simon Critchley and Brad Evans. This movie was screened at the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York in September 2011.
* Critchley's lecture "Barack Obama and the American Void" is Fora.TV's most-watched political program for 2009.
* Simon Critchley and David Shields discuss topics from the empty existential core of Los Angeles to the proximity of death and humor.
* at Fora.tv
* by video link during the ''Style in Theory / Styling Theory'' conference in Malta in November 2009

===Audio===
*
* Simon Critchley in conversation with ] on 'Smiley and West'. The discussion concerns secularism and politics around Critchley’s book, 'The Faith of the Faithless: Experiments in Political Theology'.
* Tony Curzon Price interviews Simon Critchley for Opendemocracy.net
* Simon Critchley discusses Political Theology with Richard Bernstein at the New School for Social Research.
* A Halloween Sermon on Self-Deification, Cabinet Magazine & Slought Foundation, 31 October 2008.
* Simon Critchley talking about being 'The First Free Thinker'.
* Frieze Art Fair Podcast: A conversation with Simon Critchley, Robert Storr, Barbara Bloom, Jörg Heiser.
* Daniel Heller-Roazen and Simon Critchley discuss Heller-Roazen's latest book at Après-Coup Psychoanalytic Association.
* Simon Critchley talks about neo-anarchism, Obama, and political mobilizations with guest host Andrej Grubacic on KPFA 94.1 FM.
* Simon Critchley and filmmaker Astra Taylor will share the 2010 Slought Foundation Award for Creative Thought. The award ceremony will be followed by a screening of Taylor's unreleased conversation with Critchley, as well as a public conversation between the recipients on the function of public intellectuals in American culture and politics.
* Simon Critchley discusses faith for the 'Elucidations' podcast (Department of Philosophy, University of Chicago).
* An Interview by JK Fowler for the The Mantle.

==The Critchley–Žižek debate==
The timeline or chronology of the Critchley–Žižek debate is usefully outlined by Critchley in a footnote to his ] article "Violent Thoughts on Slavoj Žižek":
# Žižek’s piece, ‘Resistance is Surrender’ (London Review of Books, 15 November 2007), which criticized the (at that time) recent appearance of Critchley's ''Infinitely Demanding''.
# 'Resistance is Surrender' in turn occasioned some responses from readers including T.J. Clark and David Graeber, to which Žižek replied by accusing Graeber and Critchley of ‘the highest form of corruption’ (LRB, 24 January 2008).
# Žižek’s critique was then republished in ] (February 2008), to which Critchley replied in a later issue (May 2008).
# An extended version of Žižek's critique of Critchley's position appeared in Žižek's book ''In Defense of Lost Causes'' (Verso, London and New York, 2008), pp.&nbsp;337–350. Critchley says he will "respond to Zizek’s criticisms of my ethical position and interpretation of Lacan on a separate occasion".

;Bibliography of the Critchley–Žižek debate
# Critchley: ''Infinitely Demanding: Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance'' (Verso, London & New York, 2007; ISBN 1-84467-121-6).
# Žižek: in the ''London Review of Books''.
# and in the ''London Review of Books''.
# a letter in the ''London Review of Books''.
# Žižek's ''In Defense of Lost Causes'' (Verso, London & New York, 2008), pp.&nbsp;337–350.
# Critchley: in ''Naked Punch'
# Article by Robert Young on the Critchley–Žižek Debate in ''Naked Punch''
# This article by Simon Critchley, published in 2005, offers a useful preamble to Critchley's position(s)

==Trivia==
* Throughout October 2009 media types around the country will receive cardboard tombstones cutouts to celebrate the release of ''The Book of Dead Philosophers''.
* The Dead Philosophers' Limbo is Susie Burpee's twelve-hour dance to the life of ideas and the death of philosophers as told by the living philosopher Simon Critchley in his book, ''The Book of Dead Philosophers.''
* How do you applaud the launch of Simon Critchley’s ''Book of Dead Philosophers?'' With a séance, of course! At least that’s how the ''Accompanied Literary Society'' chose to celebrate at an out-of-this-world party at Bobo.
* Under the name of , Critchley has produced a CD called ''Humiliation'' (2004) and a series of short films. This project was launched in an event at the Sydney Opera House in August 2004.
* Critchley gave the name ] to a ] based band previously known as ''The Fur Coughs''.
* Critchley himself played guitar in a number of North Hertfordshire bands including ''The Good Blokes'' and ''Social Class 5''.
* Critchley is a devotee of ], and has since a young child been a keen supporter of ]. He has taken this lifelong love into his philosophical work, giving a lecture in ], ], in May 2009 on French football star ], ”A puppet or a god? On Zidane”, based on Douglas Gordon and Phillipe Parreno's film ] from 2006.
* In 2011, Critchley co-directed (with Brad Evans) ''Ten Years of Terror'' in recognition of the ten-year anniversary of September 11. ''Ten Years of Terror'' examines the theoretical, empirical, and aesthetic dimensions of violence and the ensuing state of terror it produces. This series of reflections by key canonical thinkers such as Saskia Sassen, Michael Hardt, Noam Chomsky, Zygmunt Bauman, and others closely examines the enactment and ramifications of violence in our modern times. The film was shown at the in September 2011.
* The Last Word, Seven-Hour Finale: Critchley will co-host the closing of the exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum in New York on Saturday January 21, 2012.


==Miscellaneous links== ==Miscellaneous links==

Revision as of 02:09, 6 February 2013

Simon Critchley
File:Critchley-January-2012.jpg
Born (1960-02-27) February 27, 1960 (age 64)
Hertfordshire, England
Era21st-century philosophy
RegionWestern Philosophy
SchoolContinental Philosophy
Main interestsPolitics, Ethics, Post-Religion, Aesthetics

Simon Critchley (born February 27, 1960) is an English philosopher currently teaching at The New School. He works in continental philosophy. Critchley argues that philosophy commences in disappointment, either religious or political. These two axes may be said largely to inform his published work: religious disappointment raises the question of meaning and has to, as he sees it, deal with the problem of nihilism; political disappointment provokes the question of justice and raises the need for a coherent ethics.

Academic career

Critchley studied philosophy at the University of Essex (BA 1985, PhD 1988,) and at the University of Nice (M.Phil. 1987). Among his teachers were Robert Bernasconi, Jay Bernstein, Frank Cioffi, Dominique Janicaud and Onora O'Neill. His M.Phil. thesis dealt with the problem of the overcoming of metaphysics in Heidegger and Carnap; his Ph.D. dissertation was on the ethics of deconstruction in Emmanuel Levinas and Derrida.

Following a period as a university fellow at Cardiff University, Critchley was appointed a lecturer in philosophy at Essex in 1989, becoming reader in philosophy in 1995, and professor in 1999. Since 2004 Critchley has been professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research. He held the position of chair in philosophy at the New School from 2008–2011, and became the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy in 2011. He has held visiting professorships at numerous universities, including Sydney (2000), Notre Dame (2002), Cardozo Law School (2005) and at the University of Oslo (2006). In 2009 he was appointed a part-time professor of philosophy at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, where he runs a summer school and teaches in philosophy and liberal arts. Critchley is also a professor of philosophy at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.

Selected Works

The Ethics of Deconstruction (1992)

Critchley’s first book was The Ethics of Deconstruction: Derrida and Levinas (Blackwell, 1992), which argued for an ethical dimension to deconstruction. Rather than being concerned with deconstruction in terms of the contradictions inherent in any text — an approach typical of the early Derrida and those in literary criticism aiming to extract a critical method for an application to literature — Critchley concerns himself with the philosophical context necessary for an understanding of the ethics of deconstructive reading. Far from being some sort of value-free nihilism or textual free-play, Critchley showed the ethical impetus that was driving Derrida’s work. His claim was that Derrida’s understanding of ethics has to be understood in relation to his engagement with the work of Levinas and the book attempts to lay out the details of their philosophical confrontation.

Very Little... Almost Nothing (1997)

Critchley’s second book, Very Little... Almost Nothing (Routledge, 1997) develops in a very different direction and shows his concern with the relation between philosophy and literature and the problem of nihilism.

Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2001)

Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2001), is both an introduction to that tradition of thinking and an essay in meta-philosophy, which lays out the way in which Critchley sees the role of theory and reflection. It has been translated into eleven languages. In the book, Critchley addresses the perennial question of the two major Western philosophical traditions, that of analytical and continental philosophy. Critchley tries to avoid sectarianism, and argues that the professional opposition between analytic and Continental philosophy is something that needs to be transcended. Critchley accepts that there is risk within continental philosophy of obscurantism, just as there is a risk of scientism in much analytic philosophy. But the primary purpose of philosophy is to understand ourselves, our world and, as Hegel puts it, to comprehend one’s time in thought. Critchley offers the example of the ‘will of God’ as the prime example of obscurantism, but within continental philosophy also the ‘drives’ in Sigmund Freud, ‘archetypes’ in Carl Jung, the ‘real’ in Jaques Lacan, ‘power’ in Michel Foucault, ‘différance’ in Jaques Derrida, the ‘trace of God’ in Emmanuel Levinas, and the ‘epochal withdrawal of being in and as history’ in Martin Heidegger.

Infinitely Demanding (2007)

Infinitely Demanding (Verso, 2007) is the most systematic overview of Critchley's philosophical position. It combines a meta-ethics based on the concepts of approval and demand with a phenomenology of ethical experience and ethical subjectivity. At the centre of the book is a theory of ethical subjectivity based on the relation to an infinite demand. Critchley extends his analysis into discussions of aesthetics and sublimation and into political theory and practice. Critchley argues for an ethically committed political anarchism. Infinitely Demanding has been translated into 8 languages. The book has led to some heated polemics, notably with Slavoj Žižek (see below, the Critchley–Žižek debate). “Infinitely Demanding” is the topic of a special issue of the journal Critical Horizons (August 2009).

The Book of Dead Philosophers (2009)=

An extended defense of the idea that to philosophize is to learn how to die, The Book of Dead Philosophers was published by Granta in the UK (2008), Vintage in the US (2009) and Melbourne University Press in Australia (2008). It has been translated into 17 languages. “The Book of Dead Philosophers” was widely reviewed and discussed (see below). It was on The New York Times Best-Seller List in March 2009 and was a top ten bestseller in Greece in Summer 2009. The aim of “The Book of Dead Philosophers” is to examine, defend and refine the ideal of the philosophical death in the context of a culture like ours that is defined by a denial of death. However, the deeper intention of the book is to challenge and revise the way we think about the history of philosophy. More specifically, the book tries to conceive of the history of philosophy as a history of philosophers and thereby rethink the way in which approach the relation between the activity of philosophy and an individual life, between conceptuality and biography.


The Stone

The Stone is an opinion series in The New York Times, moderated by Simon Critchley, that features the writings of contemporary philosophers on issues both timely and timeless - art, war, ethics, gender, popular culture and more. Recent contributors include J.M. Bernstein, Arthur Danto, Nancy Sherman, Peter Singer, Natasha Lennard, Nancy Bauer, Todd May, Martha Nussbaum, Peter Railton, Galen Strawson, Feisal G. Mohamed, William Egginton, Andy Martin, Gary Gutting, and Critchley. Other articles by Critchley in The New York Times also include Beyond the Sea, How to Make It in the Afterlife, and Coin of Praise.

On May 21, 2011 The New York Times brought back The Stone, due to its widespread popularity. In the first new entry since January, Critchley discusses the aims of the column and the role of philosophy in contemporary culture (The Stone Returns). Critchley's recent contributions to the The Stone include Let Be: An Answer to Hamlet’s Question, a collaboration with Jamieson Webster that traces the logic of action in Shakespeare's Hamlet and Euro Blind, a discussion of Sophocles and the so-called “tragedy" of the European debt crisis. More recently Critchley contributed a three-part essay, Philip K. Dick, Sci-Fi Philosopher and an article titled Why I Love Mormonism. The latter received widespread attention and reactions from the Mormon community varied. Several articles were written in response including, Is God Infinite? Are We?, Mormonism: The Last Acceptable Predjudice, Philosophy Professor: 'Why I Love Mormonism', A Public Conversation about Mormonism, Time to Take Interest in Mormonism and Mormon Media Observer: Papers post robust defense of Latter-day Saints.

=The Guardian series on Heidegger's Being and Time

In an essay series for the British newspaper The Guardian, Critchley explores Martin Heidegger’s magnum opus, Being and Time, first published in 1927. The importance of Heidegger’s work, Crtichley explains, is not limited to philosophy, but has poured over into such diverse areas as architecture, contemporary art, social and political theory, psychotherapy, psychiatry and theology. Yet, because of his political commitment to National Socialism in 1933, when he assumed the position of Rector of Freiburg University in south-western Germany, Heidegger continues to arouse controversy, polemic and much heated misunderstanding: How could arguably the greatest philosopher of the 20th century also have been a Nazi? What does his political commitment to National Socialism, however long or short it lasted, suggest about the nature of philosophy and its risks and dangers when stepping into the political realm? Critchley argues that such political questions cannot be properly confronted without coming to terms with Being and Time. The Guardian Series is a concise attempt to understand and feel the persuasive power of this seminal text.

Recent interviews

Miscellaneous links

Selected bibliography

  • (1991) Re-Reading Levinas, ed. with Robert Bernasconi, Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
  • (1992) The Ethics of Deconstruction: Derrida and Levinas, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, (2nd edition, 1999)
  • (1996) Deconstructive Subjectivities, ed. with Peter Dews, State University of New York Press, Ithaca, NY.
  • (1996) Emmanuel Levinas: Basic Philosophical Writings, ed. with Adriaan T. Peperzak and Robert Bernasconi, Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
  • (1997) Very Little... Almost Nothing: Death, Philosophy, Literature, Routledge, London & New York (2nd Edition, 2004).
  • (1998) A Companion to Continental Philosophy, ed. with William J. Schroeder, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.
  • (1999) Ethics-Politics-Subjectivity: Essays on Derrida, Levinas, and Contemporary French Thought, Verso, London (Reissued, 2007).
  • (2001) Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press.
  • (2002) The Cambridge Companion to Levinas, ed. with Robert Bernasconi, Cambridge University Press.
  • (2002) On Humour, Routledge, London.
  • (2004) Laclau, A Critical Reader, ed. with Oliver Marchart, Routledge, London.
  • (2005) On the Human Condition, with Dominique Janicaud & Eileen Brennan, Routledge, London.
  • (2007) Infinitely Demanding. Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance, Verso, London & New York.
  • (2008) The Book of Dead Philosophers, Granta Books, London; Vintage, New York; Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
  • (2008) On Heidegger’s ‘Being and Time’, with Reiner Schürmann, edited by Steven Levine, Routledge, London and New York.
  • (2008) Der Katechismus des Bürgers, Diaphanes Verlag, Berlin.
  • (2008) Democracy and Disappointment: On the Politics of Resistance (DVD) - Alain Badiou and Simon Critchley in Conversation, Slought Books, Philadelphia.
  • (2010) How to Stop Living and Start Worrying, Polity Press.
  • (2011) Impossible Objects, Polity Press.
  • (2011) International Necronautical Society: Offizielle Mitteilungen
  • (2012) The Faith of the Faithless, Verso.

Critchley has also edited the following book series:

  • Thinking the Political (Routledge)
  • Blackwell Readings in Continental Philosophy (Blackwell)
  • Thinking in Action (Routledge)
  • How to Read... (Granta, London, and W.W. Norton, New York)

References

  1. "Simon Critchley's top 10 philosophers' deaths" at guardian.co.uk (Wednesday 11 June 2008)
  2. See Crtichley's contributions from May and August of 2010: "What Is a Philosopher?", a reassessment of the ancient art, and "The Rigor of Love", which asks whether the experience of faith be shared by those unable to believe in God?
  3. Part 1: Why Heidegger Matters, Part 2: On Mineness, Part 3: Being-in-the-world, Part 4: Thrown Into This World, Part 5: Anxiety, Part 6: Death, Part 7: Conscience, Part 8: Temporality

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