Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 03:34, 16 February 2013

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. In the book, Critchley addresses the perennial question of the two major Western philosophical traditions, that of analytical and continental philosophy. Critchley 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.

Recent interviews

• In 2009 Simon Critchley was interviewed along with Giuseppe Mazzotta and Alexander Nehamas by Costica Bradatan which was part of a project called "Of Poets and Thinkers. A Conversation on Philosophy, Literature, and the Rebuilding of the World." It was published in The European Legacy (London: Routledge), 14.5 (August 2009), pp. 519-534. It was translated into Portuguese by Djeissom Silva Ribeiro and into Spanish by Moris Polanco (both in 2011). In addition the text was translated into Bulgarian by Lyubomira Konstantinova: “За поети и мислители: разговор за философия, литература и за възстановяването на света” in Философски Алтернативи, 20:2 (2011), pp. 45-59 and into Romanian by Mona Mamulea: “Despre gânditori şi poeţi. Un dialog cu privire la filosofie, literatură şi reclădirea lumii” in Secolul 21, No. 7-12 (2009) (Bucharest, Romania), pp. 18-39.
• Bringing Philosophy to Life: A Conversation with Prof. Simon Critchley featured in The National Herald (December 1-7, 2012 issue), inspired by Simon Critchley's Truth and Lies series at BAM
• Interview with The White Review on The Tragic and Its Limits
• A recent interview with Critchley by e-flux on the notion of active and passive nihilism.
• An interview in Religious Dispatches by Beatrice Marovitch (August 15, 2012)
• An interview by Andrew Hines at Figure/Ground Communication (July 29, 2012)
• Pursuing Impossible Objects An interview by John Douglas Millar for Monthly Review.
• On Philosophers, Violence, Humour & Tragedy An interview by Qalandar Bux Memon and Asif Akhtar for Naked Punch.
• Tragedy, Rage, Grief and Being an Arsehole An interview by Dave Ronalds for Parallax.
• Exhausted States Concluding their three-part exchange for Mute, artist Alfredo Jaar and philosopher Simon Critchley contemplate how to keep on, artistically and politically, in the face of the spectacular violence that washed-up liberal democracy meets with daily indifference. This exchange was convened by David Morris.
• Creating Interstices: On Ethics, Politics, and Curatorship Simon Critchley discusses aesthetics, nihilism, and ethical fidelity with Miguel Á. Hernández-Navarro in Manifesta Journal, V.12
• Resisting the Meaningless Simon Critchley talks power, politics, and the problem of nihilism with Tom Cutterham for Cherwell.org
• Geluk wordt overschat "Happiness is Overrated": Simon Critchley speaks with Peter Giesen for De Volkskrant in the Netherlands.
• The Last Word: Critchley on Cattelan An interview with Critchley on Maurizio Cattelan’s retrospective at the Guggenheim.
• My Daily Read for The Chronicle of Higher Education.
• An Interview on The Faith of the Faithless with Stir to Action.
• The Ethics of Discomfort John Douglas Millar on art and politics according to Simon Critchley for Art Monthly.
• "월가 시위는 아나키즘의 가능성 보여준 사례" An interview with the Korean newspaper Hankookilbo.

Miscellaneous links

• Critchley's webpage at The New School for Social Research
• Simon Critchley Faculty page at European Graduate School (Biography, bibliography, photos and video lectures)
• Absolutely-Too-Much A recent article by Critchley concerned with the idea of contemporary art, published in the Brooklyn Rail.
• What Is Normal? Critchley recently published an article for Adbusters which discusses the power of the political imagination and the ongoing world-wide conflicts with state power.
• Irish artist Clodagh Emoe recently made a film of Critchley's Mystical Anarchism, which will be shown in New York and elsewhere in 2012.
• Readings A list of books on the mind for The Believer Mag,

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?

Template:Persondata

• 1960 births
• Living people
• English anarchists
• English atheists
• 21st-century philosophers
• Anarchist academics
• Academics of the University of Essex
• English philosophers
• The New School faculty
• European Graduate School faculty
• Continental philosophers
• Philosophers of religion
• Political philosophers