Theory and Practice is a series of nine lectures that Jacques Derrida delivered at the Ecole Normale Superieure in 1976 and 1977. The topic of "theory and practice" was associated above all with Marxist discourse and particularly the influential interpretation of Marx by Louis Althusser. Derrida's many questions to Althusser and other thinkers aim at unsettling the distinction between thinking and acting.
Derrida's investigations set out from Marx's "Theses on Feuerbach," in particular the eleventh thesis, which has often been taken as a mantra for the "end of philosophy," to be brought about by Marxist practice. Derrida argues, however, that Althusser has no such end in view and that his discourse remains resolutely philosophical, even as it promotes the theory/practice pair as primary values. This seminar also draws fascinating connections between Marxist thought and Heidegger and features Derrida's signature reconsideration of the dichotomy between doing and thinking. This text, available for the first time in English, shows that Derrida was doing important work on Marx long before Specters of Marx. As with the other volumes in this series, it gives readers an unparalleled glimpse into Derrida's thinking at its best-spontaneous, unpredictable, and groundbreaking.

When he died in 2004, Jacques Derrida left behind a vast legacy of unpublished material, much of it in the form of written lectures. With "The Beast and the Sovereign, Volume I", the University of Chicago Press inaugurated an ambitious series, edited by Geoffrey Bennington and Peggy Kamuf, translating these important works into English. This volume, now in paperback, launched the series with Derrida's exploration of the persistent association of animality with sovereignty. "The Beast and The Sovereign" are connected, he contends, because neither animals nor kings are subject to the law - the sovereign stands above it, while the beast falls outside the law from below. An astonishing array of texts - from La Fontaine's fable "The Wolf and the Lamb" to Machiavelli's "Prince" - come into critical play as Derrida focuses in on questions of force, right, justice, and philosophical interpretations of the limits between man and animal.

"The Beast and the Sovereign, Volume II" is the latest entry in the University of Chicago Press' ambitious series of translations of Jacques Derrida's previously unpublished written lectures. Picking up where the previous volume left off, "Volume II" extends Derrida's exploration of the fascinating connections between animality and human sovereignty. In the second part of this seminar, originally presented in 2002-3, Derrida focuses on what at first appear to be two markedly different texts: Heidegger's "The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics" and Daniel Defoe's classic novel "Robinson Crusoe". Shuttling back and forth between the two works, Derrida investigates a number of key concepts and provides ingenious interpretations of both texts. Sovereignty remains his primary concern as he reflects on the political history of the dominion of humans over animals in Defoe's England and on diverse readings of "Robinson Crusoe" through the centuries and, in particular, from Heidegger's Germany in the 1930s. Solitude provides another connection between the two books as Derrida links the indivisible uniqueness of a king with Crusoe's solitary plight. Both consolidating and broadening Derrida's deconstructive critique of sovereignty, "The Beast and the Sovereign, Volume II" is a rich repast, offering everything from striking insights into Heidegger's use of language to surprising digressions that reveal the contours of a lively intellect deeply engaged with the world.

Contents Shibboleth: For Paul Celan A Self-Unsealing Poetic Text: Poetics and Politics of Witnessing Language Does Not Belong: An Interview The Majesty of the Present: Reading Celan's The MeridianRams: Uninterrupted Dialogue-between Two Infinities, the PoemThis book brings together five powerful encounters. Themes central to all ofDerrida's writings thread the intense confrontation between the most famousphilosopher of our time and the Jewish poet writing in German who, perhapsmore powerfully than any other, has testified to the European experience ofthe twentieth century.They include the date or signature and its singularity; the notion of the trace;temporal structures of futurity and the to come; the multiplicity of languageand questions of translation; such speech acts as testimony and promising, butalso lying and perjury; the possibility of the impossible; and, above all, the questionof the poem as addressed and destined beyond knowledge, seeking to speak toand for the irreducibly other.The memory of encounters with thinkers who have also engaged Celan's workanimates these writings, which include a brilliant dialogue between twointerpretative modes-hermeneutics and deconstruction. Derrida's approach toa poem is a revelation on many levels, from the most concrete ways of reading-for example, his analysis of a sequence of personal pronouns-to the mostsweeping imperatives of human existence (and Derrida's writings are alwaysa study in the imbrication of such levels). Above all, he voices the call toresponsibility in the ultimate line of Celan's poem: The world is gone,I must carry you,which sounds throughout the book's final essay like a refrain. Only two of the texts in this volume do not appear here in English for the first time. Of these, Schibboleth has been entirely retranslated and has been set following Derrida's own instructions for publication in French; A Self-Unsealing Poetic Textwas substantially rewritten by Derrida himself and basically appears here as the translation of a new text. Jacques Derrida's most recent books in English translation include Counterpath: Traveling with Jacques Derrida (with Catherine Malabou). He died in Paris on October 8, 2004. Thomas Dutoit teaches at the Universit de Paris 7. He translated Aporias and edited On the Name, both by Jacques Derrida.

德里达的解构在其产生之初，就被指责为是非政治的。而由于它与海德格尔的遗产之间的某种程度上的“共谋”关系，他的思想更被指责为有法西斯的倾向。特别是1987年维克多·法里亚斯的《海德格尔与纳粹主义》一书的出版，似乎更加重了人们的这样一种印象：海德格尔的纳粹事件并不是哲学家的一次偶然的失足，相反，纳粹思想已铭刻在海德格尔思想的最深处。《论精神——海德格尔与问题》就是在这样一个背景下发表的。所以在某种程度上说，它当然可以视为是对法里亚斯一书的回应。

Positions is a collection of three interviews with Jacques Derrida that illuminate and make more accessible the complex concepts and terms treated extensively in such works as Writing and Difference and Dissemination. Derrida takes positions on his detractors, his supporters, and the two major preoccupations of French intellectual life, Marxism and psychoanalysis.
The interviews included in this volume offer a multifaceted view of Derrida. “Implications: Interview with Henri Ronse” contains a succinct statement of principles. “Seminology and Grammatology: Interview with Julia Kristeva” provides important clarifications of the role played by linguistics in Derrida’s work. “Positions: Interview with Jean-Louis Houdebine and Guy Scarpetta” is a wide-ranging discussion that touches on many of the polemics that Derrida’s work has provoked.
Alan Bass, whose translation of Writing and Difference was highly praised for its clarity, accuracy, and readability, has provided extremely useful critical notes, full of vital information, including historical background.

Acts of Religion, complied in close association with Jacques Derrida, brings together for the first time a number of Derrida's writings on religion and questions of faith and their relation to philosophy and political culture. The esssays discuss religious texts from Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions, as well as religious thinkers such as Kant, Levinas and Gershom Schloem, and comprise pieces spanning Derrida's career. The collection includes two essays by Derrida that appear here for the first time in any language, as well as a substantial introduction by Gil Anidjar that explores Derrida's return to his own "religious" origins and his attempts to bring to light hidden religious dimensions of the social, cultural, historical and political.