Derrida's Social Ontology: Institutions in Deconstruction

by Ryan A. Gustafson

Overview

Derrida's Social Ontology: Institutions in Deconstruction presents the first dedicated study of Jacques Derrida’s philosophy of institutions. While previous studies of Derrida’s thought have considered his engagement with individual institutions—from the university to literature, law, and psychoanalysis, among others—Derrida’s Social Ontology offers the first attempt to reconstruct and defend the philosophical theory of institutions that underlies these engagements. In so doing, the book argues that the theme of “the institution” in Derrida's oeuvre offers the best throughline for understanding the substantively normative significance of deconstruction as a philosophical practice, arguing that Derrida is unique among so-called “postmodern” thinkers in providing an account of the relationship between the historically contingent character of institutions and the normative entitlements that such entities make possible. Specifically, the book shows how Derrida accounts for this relationship in a way that leaves room for a notion of “unconditional responsibility” for the social and political world to the extent that the latter is structured by perfectible institutions. In tracing the development of Derrida’s account of this link between the historicity and normativity of institutional life—from his early writings on the historicity of the institution of philosophy, to his later critiques of practices of institutional cruelty like the death penalty—Derrida's Social Ontology not only offers readers a new framework for making sense of the normative commitments that defined this philosopher's writings, but will also establish the terms for putting his works into conversation with contemporary debates in social and political philosophy and critical theory more broadly.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031414930
Publisher:	Springer Nature Switzerland
Publication date:	12/02/2023
Edition description:	1st ed. 2023
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Ryan A. Gustafson, PhD, teaches at Eugene Lang College at The New School in New York City. His writings on Derrida have appeared in The Undecidable Unconscious: A Journal in Psychoanalysis and Deconstruction and Derrida Today.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.- 2. Of Historicity: The Theme of Deconstruction (1962–1967).- 3. Of Declarations, Signatures, and Titles: Derrida on the Historicity of Institutions (1971–1986).- 4. Of Force & Right: Questions of Responsibility in the Later Derrida (1989–2004).- 5. Of Lies: A Concluding Post-Script.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This is a brilliantly original take on Derrida and deconstruction by a major new philosophical talent. I urge everyone with an interest in the ongoing relevance of deconstruction particularly for our institutional lives to study this book closely.” (Simon Critchley, Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy, The New School for Social Research, New York City)

“Ryan Gustafson offers a meticulous reading of Derrida’s oeuvre with a much-needed intervention: to situate deconstruction as a philosophical practice with political concerns, as opposed to constituting merely a method of reading. Gustafson makes a significant contribution to contemporary political philosophy as his book offers a novel interpretation of Derrida’s idea that the institution was one of deconstruction’s central problems. This manuscript let us see that the institution was for Derrida a socio-historical performative practice of violence that needed to be deconstructed. Gustafson is carefulto lay out Derrida’s paradoxical development, in which deconstruction is at the same time and space an institutional practice and also its critique.” (Rosaura Martínez Ruiz, Full Professor of Philosophy, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)s)