Simon Critchley

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Simon Critchley
Western Philosophy
21st-century philosophy
Full name Simon Critchley
School/tradition Phenomenology, Deconstruction
Main interests Politics, Ethics, Post-Religion, Psychoanalysis, Aesthetics

Simon Critchley (born February 27, 1960) is an English philosopher now teaching in the U.S., who works in continental philosophy, history of philosophy, literature, ethics and politics. Critchley argues that philosophy begins in disappointment, either religious or political. In many ways, these two axes of disappointment organize his published work. Religious disappointment raises the question of meaning and has to deal with the problem of nihilism. Political disappointment provokes the question of justice and raises the need for an ethics.

Contents

[edit] Academic career

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

After a position as University Fellow at Cardiff University, Critchley was appointed Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Essex in 1989, where he became Reader in 1995 and Professor in 1999. Also at the University of Essex, he was Director of the Centre for Theoretical Studies and collaborated closely with Ernesto Laclau.

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 the University of Frankfurt. Between 1998-2004, Critchley was a Programme Director of the Collège international de philosophie, Paris. In 2006-7, he was a Scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles.[1] Since 2004 he has been Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research, New York. In addition, he has held visiting professorships at Nijmegen (1997), the Universities of Sydney (2000), Notre Dame (2002), Cardozo Law School in New York (2005), and Oslo (2006). In 2009, he was appointed a part-time Professor of Philosophy at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. (see Critchley's Tilburg Homepage)

Critchley is also Chief Philosopher with the International Necronautical Society, a semi-fictitious avant garde network that surfaces through publications, proclamations, denunciations and live events, which has been described by Untitled Magazine as “the most comprehensive total art work we have seen in years” [2] and by Art Monthly as “a platform for fantastically mobile thinking”.[3] He has collaborated closely with novelist Tom McCarthy on a number of projects, including the society's declaration on inauthenticity.[4]

See also the review of the Necronautical Society in the New York Review of Books [5], their joint publication on James Joyce[6], and their most recent event held at the Tate Britain where Critchley and McCarthy were played by actors.[7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]


"Critchley" & "McCarthy"

INS Logo

Critchley Podium

McCarthy Podium

[edit] Works

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 political and psychoanalytic turn to Critchley’s thinking. A new edition will appear in Verso’s Radical Thinkers series.

[edit] Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2001)

In 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 nine languages. In the book, Critchley addresses the perennial question of the two major Western philosophical traditions, that of analytical philosophy 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, which 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 Lacan, ‘power’ in Michel Foucault, ‘différance’ in Derrida, the ‘trace of God’ in Levinas, and the ‘epochal withdrawal of being in and as history’ in Heidegger.

[edit] 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 8 languages.

[edit] 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. The book also contains Critchley’s essay on Terence Malick’s The Thin Red Line.

[edit] Infinitely Demanding (2007)

Infinitely Demanding (Verso, 2007) is a systematic overview of Critchley's philosophical position - ranging from phenomenological ethics, to political theory, and political analysis. Critchley argues for an ethically committed political anarchism. It is being translated into 5 languages. The book has led to some heated polemics, notably with Slavoj Zizek (See below, the Critchley-Zizek Debate).

[edit] The Book of Dead Philosophers (2008)

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, Vintage in the US and Melbourne University Press in Australia. It is being translated into 6 languages and has been on The New York Times Best-Seller List since March 8th, 2009.

[edit] On Heidegger’s Being and Time (2008)

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.

[edit] Der Katechismus des Bürgers (2008)

This small volume on the problem of politics and religion was published in German. It is understood that an extended English version will appear in the future.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Religion and ritual drives scholarly pursuits for 2006-2007 academic year at the Getty Research Institute. September 12, 2006. Retrieved August 27, 2008.
  2. ^ How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb by Diana Baldon Summer 2004
  3. ^ Deathly Pursuits, profile of INS General Secretary, Tom McCarthy by Marcus Verhagen June 2004
  4. ^ The State of Authenticity by Peter Schwenger Fall 2007
  5. ^ Two Paths for the Novel by Zadie Smith November 20, 2008
  6. ^ Of Chrematology: Joyce and Money by Simon Critchley and Tom McCarthy 2003
  7. ^ Linda McCartney Vegetarian Sausages For Nicolas Bourriaud
  8. ^ International Necronautical Society (INS) delivers keynote declaration on Inauthenticity, Tate Britain
  9. ^ Tate Britain Press Release
  10. ^ Review in 3ammagazine
  11. ^ Real Inauthenticity from Anthem Magazine
  12. ^ Crackling Embers IV: Art’s Dirty Secret Redux (3AM Magazine)
  13. ^ The Matter of Past Loving London
  14. ^ Tate Triennial 2009 Prologue 4: Borders: Simon Critchley & Tom McCarthy - Declaration on Inauthenticity

[edit] The Critchley-Zizek debate

  1. Critchley: Infinitely Demanding: Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance (Verso, London & New York, 2007; ISBN 1844671216).
  2. Zizek: Resistance Is Surrender in the London Review of Books.
  3. T.J. Clark's and David Graeber's Responses in the London Review of Books.
  4. Zizek's Response a letter in the London Review of Books.
  5. Critchley's response, an article titled, "Crypto-Schmittianism" at state of nature.org
  6. Zizek's In Defense of Lost Causes (Verso, London & New York, 2008), pp.337-350.
  7. Critchley: "Violent Thoughts on Slavoj Zizek" in Naked Punch (Autumn 2008).

[edit] Selected bibliography

[edit] As editor

Critchley has 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)

[edit] See also

[edit] Trivia

  • Askmelissa.com 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 & Simmons, 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 The Bleach Boys to a Hitchin 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.

[edit] External links

[edit] Online writings

[edit] Interviews

[edit] Reviews

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