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Perspectives Volume 2. 2009 PERSPECTIVES International Postgraduate Journal of Philosophy Volume 2 Autumn 2009 SPECIAL ISSUE: Continental Philosophy EDITORS: Anna Nicholson, Luna Dolezal, Seferin James, Sheena Hyland UCD School of Philosophy PERSPECTIVES International Postgraduate Journal of Philosophy Founding Editors Anna Nicholson, Luna Dolezal, Sheena Hyland Editors Anna Nicholson, Luna Dolezal, Seferin James, Sheena Hyland International Board of Reviewers Maria Baghramian (University College Dublin) Joseph Cohen (University College Dublin) Christopher Cowley (University College Dublin) Fred Cummins (University College Dublin) Tsarina Doyle (NUI Galway) Brian Elliott (University College Dublin) Sinead Hogan (Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dublin) Fiona Hughes (University of Essex, UK) Galen Johnson (University of Rhode Island, USA) Christopher Mole (University College Dublin) Aislinn O’Donnell (National College of Art and Design, Dublin) Felix Ó Murchadha (NUI Galway) Maria Baghramian Acknowledgements Margaret Brady The Editors gratefully acknowledge the support of Christopher Cowley University College Dublin, National University of Ireland. Helen Kenny Funding Emma Nic Eodhasa UCD School of Philosophy UCD SEED Fund The International Board of Reviewers UCD School of Philosophy Design and Layout Patrick McKay, Advantage Point Promotions UCD College of Human Sciences Thanks to Maria Baghramian Margaret Brady Christopher Crowley Helen Kenny Emma Nic Eodhasa James O’Shea Patrick McKay International Board of Reviewers UCD School of Philosophy UCD College of Human Sciences PERSPECTIVES: International Postgraduate JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY Contents SPECIAL ISSUE Continental Philosophy INTRODUCTION Anna Nicholson, Luna Dolezal, Seferin James, Sheena Hyland 1 (University College Dublin, Ireland) INTERVIEW Simon Critchley: ‘Infinitely Demanding Anarchism’ 3 (The New School for Social Research, USA) ARTICLES Gail Weiss (George Washington University, USA) 22 Intertwined Identities: Challenges to Bodily Autonomy Carolyne Quinn (Paris III, Université de Sorbonne-Nouvelle, 38 France/ University College Dublin, Ireland) Perception and Painting in Merleau-Ponty’s Thought Tsutomu B. Yagi (University College Dublin, Ireland) 60 Beyond Subjectivity: Kierkegaard’s Self and Heidegger’s Dasein Bence Marosan (Eotvos Lorand University, Hungary) 78 Apodicticity and Transcendental Phenomenology Jennifer Lemma (All Hallows College, Ireland) 102 Language Acquisition, Motherhood, and the Perpetual Preservation of Ethical Dialogue: A Model for Ethical Discourse Focusing on Julia Kristeva Tom Sparrow (Duquesne University, USA) 116 Bodies in Transit: The Plastic Subject of Alphonso Lingis PERSPECTIVES: International Postgraduate JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY BOOK REVIEWS Simon Glendinning and Robert Eaglestone (eds.). 140 Derrida’s Legacies: Literature and Philosophy David W. Hill (University of York, UK) Jürgen Habermas. Between Naturalism and Religion 146 John McGuire (University College Dublin, Ireland) Catherine Osborne. Dumb Beasts & Dead Philosophers: 152 Humanity & the Humane in Ancient Philosophy & Literature Mark Reardon (University of Wales, Newport, UK) James Warren. Presocratics 157 Paul John Ennis (University College Dublin, Ireland) 1 PERSPECTIVES: International Postgraduate JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY INTRODUCTION About Perspectives Perspectives: International Postgraduate Journal of Philosophy is a peer-reviewed annual publication, featuring articles, book reviews and interviews encompassing a broad range of current issues in philosophy and its related disciplines. Perspectives reflects the diverse interests of the graduate philosophy community at University College Dublin, publishing work from within both the analytic and continental traditions. We welcome submissions addressing philosophical problems from related disciplines, including cognitive science and psychology. Perspectives publishes the highest standard of postgraduate scholarship. About this Issue The second issue of Perspectives: International Postgraduate Journal of Philosophy is a special edition on continental philosophy. The articles in this issue cover a range of themes and concerns in the continental tradition and demonstrate the broad spectrum of the research interests of our contributors from Ireland, Europe, and the United States. In the interview ‘Infinitely Demanding Anarchism’, Simon Critchley discusses his book Infinitely Demanding: Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance, answering questions on his departure from Derrida’s thought, the trajectory of his work from the question over Heidegger’s fascism to a Levinasian anarchism, how he understands ethics, politics and political action, the relation of his thought to the wider anarchist tradition and whether his ethics has clear normative consequences. In her article ‘Intertwined Identities: Challenges to Bodily Autonomy’ Gail Weiss explores the implications of conceiving the ‘normal’ body as an autonomous body. In particular, she focuses on cases of conjoined twins and critically examines the reasons behind surgical and familial decisions to undergo separation surgery. Considering the enormous risks involved in such surgeries, she challenges the prevailing concept of ‘one body, one identity’ and looks at its role in these decisions. In her paper ‘Perception and Painting in Merleau-Ponty’s Thought’ Carolyne Quinn offers an analysis of Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of perception and his writing on painting. Focusing on three of Merleau- Ponty’s essays on painting ‘Cezanne’s Doubt’, ‘Indirect Language and the Voices of Silence’ and ‘Eye Mind’, this paper offers a unique analysis of 1 PERSPECTIVES: International Postgraduate JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY INFINITELY DEMANDING ANARCHISM: AN Interview WITH SIMON CRITCHLEY perception as a creative and expressive experience. Tsutomu Ben Yagi’s paper ‘Beyond Subjectivity: Kierkegaard’s Self and Heidegger’s Dasein’ considers the departure made from classical notions of subjectivity by these thinkers. He argues that their temporalisation and finitisation of subjectivity leads away from a metaphysical understanding of subjectivity and moves towards a more existential understanding that breaks most successfully from the history of metaphysics with Heidegger. In ‘Apodicticity and Transcendental Phenomenology’, Bence Marosan investigates the possibilities for apodicticity or unshakable future validity in phenomenology. He argues that apodicticity gains its proper sense from a theoretical framework and calls for a reconciliation of the many divergences within phenomenology itself in order to preserve this framework and the philosophical life of truth. Jennifer Lemma’s article ‘Language Acquisition, Motherhood, and the Perpetual Preservation of Ethical Dialogue,’ explores the paradigm of motherhood as a vehicle for language acquisition in the work of Julia Kristeva. She focuses on the mother/child relationship at the centre of Kristeva’s analysis, and evaluates its implications as a model for ethical discourse. Tom Sparrow’s contribution to this collection ‘Bodies in Transit: The Plastic Subject of Alphonso Lingis’ explores the work of the living and contemporary philosopher Alphonso Lingis. This paper describes Lingis’ phenomenology of sensation and his reflections of travel. It will be seen that the subject of Lingis’ writing features a plasticity of the body. Furthermore materiality of affect and the alimentary nature of sensation will be examined. This issue closes with a selection of book reviews that encompass a broader selection of philosophical themes, including ancient philosophy, Jacques Derrida, Jürgen Habermas, and animal ethics. It is with great pleasure that we publish the second issue of Perspectives. Many thanks to our contributors, board of reviewers, designer and all others whose support and encouragement have been invaluable. Anna Nicholson Luna Dolezal Seferin James Sheena Hyland Editors Dublin 2009 2 3 INFINITELY DEMANDING ANARCHISM: AN Interview WITH SIMON CRITCHLEY Infinitely Demanding Anarchism: An Interview with Simon Critchley Simon Critchley is Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York. He received his Doctorate from the University of Essex in 1988 for the thesis published as The Ethics of Deconstruction: Derrida and Levinas (1992). He has published numerous books including: Very Little, Almost Nothing: Death, Philosophy, Literature (1997), Ethics- Politics-Subjectivity: Essays on Derrida, Levinas, and Contemporary French Thought (1999), Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2001), Infinitely Demanding: Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance (2007) and On Heidegger’s Being and Time (2008). His research interests include continental philosophy, phenomenology, philosophy and literature, psychoanalysis, the ethical and the political. Seferin James: Your landmark work The Ethics of Deconstruction: Derrida and Levinas faced the difficult task of coming to terms with the ethical significance of Jacques Derrida’s work. With your more recent book, Infinitely Demanding: Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance, you continue to work with ethical insights derived from Emmanuel Levinas but the only reference to Derrida is a single footnote. In your 2008 paper “Derrida the Reader” you discuss some of your reservations about Derrida’s philosophy. Some of your reservations, such as those over the term “post-structuralism” and the popular idea of deconstruction, seem likely to have been shared by Derrida himself but you also claim to set
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