The Gift of Death (Religion and Postmodernism) - Hardcover

Derrida, Jacques

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226143058 ISBN 13: 9780226143057

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1995

Synopsis

In The Gift of Death, Jacques Derrida's most sustained consideration of religion to date, he continues to explore questions introduced in Given Time about the limits of the rational and responsible that one reaches in granting or accepting death, whether by sacrifice, murder, execution, or suicide. Derrida analyzes Patocka's Heretical Essays on the History of Philosophy and develops and compares his ideas to the works of Heidegger, Levinas, and Kierkegaard.

A major work, The Gift of Death resonates with much of Derrida's earlier writing and will be of interest to scholars in anthropology, philosophy, and literary criticism, along with scholars of ethics and religion.

"The Gift of Death is Derrida's long-awaited deconstruction of the foundations of the project of a philosophical ethics, and it will long be regarded as one of the most significant of his many writings."—Choice

"An important contribution to the critical study of ethics that commends itself to philosophers, social scientists, scholars of relgion . . . [and those] made curious by the controversy that so often attends Derrida."—Booklist

"Derrida stares death in the face in this dense but rewarding inquiry. . . . Provocative."—Publishers Weekly

About this title

About the Author:

Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) was director of studies at the école des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, and professor of humanities at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of many books published by the University of Chicago Press.
 

Language Notes:

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0226143058
• ISBN 13: 9780226143057
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 124