The Ethics of Deconstruction: Derrida and Levinas

The Ethics of Deconstruction, Simon Critchley’s first book, was originally published to great acclaim in 1992. The first book to argue for the ethical turn in Derrida’s work, it powerfully shows how deconstruction has persuasive ethical consequences that are vital to our thinking through of questions of politics and democracy. Moving away from using deconstruction to find the contradictions inherent in any text, Critchley concerns himself with the philosophical context the ethical impetus Derrida’s ethics to be understood in relation to his engagement with the work of Levinas, and lays out the details of their philosophical confrontation. New for this edition: A new preface where Critchley reveals the origins, motivations, and reception of The Ethics of Deconstruction, plus three new appendices, which reflect upon and deppend the book’s argument.

Reviews of The Ethics of Deconstruction: Derrida and Levinas

"On its first appearance The Ethics of Deconstruction not only helped to shape the English reception of both Levinas and Derrida, but it also contributed to a reorienting of continental philosophy toward ethical issues. The book was timely when it first appeared and has not lost any of its initial relevance today. In fact with the additional material added to this edition it is now all the more valuable."–Robert Bernasconi, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Philosophy at Penn State University"I celebrate this third edition of the classic book on ethics and deconstruction that Critchley published over twenty years ago and which has been widely reread and reviewed both in the English-speaking world and well beyond it. This book was pathbreaking, for it started a whole line of reflection on the possible ethical implications of Derrida's work, that Derrida himself encouraged in his later writings. Critchley's book remains as crucial for the interpretation of deconstruction as it was in its original version and I arnestly encourage a careful reading of its main theses."–Ernesto Laclau, Emeritus Professor, University of Essex