Jean-Luc Nancy and the Question of Community

The question of community is central to our daily life: where do we belong to, what do we share with each other? The French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy has made these questions one of the central topics of his oeuvre. Jean-Luc Nancy and the Question of Community is the first to elaborate exhaustively this question within Nancy. Ignaas Devisch sketches the philosophical debate on community today and puts the work of Nancy within its intellectual context, from Heidegger and Derrida, to Bataille and Blanchot. Devisch argues that Nancy's work takes another look at community, at the social bond and at identity more generally than we are used to. Nancy's point of departure is the ontological social condition that, according to him, we are always already in. For Nancy, every form of being-with starts out from this condition, but this has been denied in the thinking of community until very recently.

Ignaas Devisch is Professor in Ethics and Philosophy. He holds positions at Ghent University and University College Arteveldehogeschool, Belgium.