Debates in Continental Philosophy Conversations with Contemporary Thinkers

This important book brings together in one volume a collection of illuminating encounters with some of the most important philosophers of our age-by one of its most incisive and innovative critics. For more than twenty years, Richard Kearney has been in conversation with leading philosophers, literary theorists, anthropologists, and religious scholars. His gift is eliciting memorably clear statements about their work from thinkers whose writings can often be challenging in their complexity. Here, he brings together twenty-one originally published extraordinary conversations-his 1984 collection Dialogues: The Phenomenological Heritage, his 1992 Visions of Europe: Conversations on the Legacy and Future of Europe, and his 1995 States of Mind: Dialogues with Contemporary Thinkers. Featured interviewees include Stanislas Breton, Umberto Eco, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Herbert Marcus, George Steiner, Julia Kristeva, Emmanuel Levinas, and Jean-Franìois Lyotard. To this classic core, he adds recent interviews, previously unpublished, with Paul Ricoeur, Jean-Luc Marion, Jacques Derrida, and George DumÄzil, as well as six colloquies about his own work. Wide-ranging and accessible, these interviews provide a fascinating guide to the ideas, concerns, and personalities of thinkers who have shaped modern intellec-tual life. This book will be an essential point of entry for students, teachers, scholars, and anyone seeking to understand contemporary culture. Contents Preface Part One: Recent Debates Jacques Derrida: Terror, Religion, and the New Politics Jean-Luc Marion: The Hermeneutics of Revelation Paul Ric£ur: (a) On Life Stories (b) On The Crisis of Authority (c) The Power of the Possible (d) Imagination, Testimony, and Trust Georges Dum'zil: Myth, Ideology, Sovereignty Part Two: From Dialogues: The Phenomenological Heritage, 1984 Emmanuel Levinas: Ethics of the Infinite Herbert Marcuse: The Philosophy of Art and Politics Paul Ric£ur: (a) The Creativity of Language (b) Myth as the Bearer of Possible Worlds Stanislas Breton: Being, God, and the Poetics of Relation Jacques Derrida: Deconstruction and the Other Part Three: From States of Mind, 1995 Julia Kristeva: Strangers to Ourselves: The Hope of the Singular Hans Georg Gadamer: Text Matters Jean-Fran'ois Lyotard: What Is Just? George Steiner: Culture-The Price You Pay Paul Ric£ur: Universality and the Power of Difference Umberto Eco: Chaosmos: The Return to the Middle Ages Part Four: Colloquies with Richard Kearney Villanova Colloquy: Against Omnipotence Athens Colloquy: Between Selves and Others Halifax Colloquy: Between Being and God Stony Brook Colloquy: Confronting Imagination Boston Colloquy: Theorizing the Gift Dublin Colloquy: Thinking Is Dangerous Appendix: Philosophy as DialogueKearney, Richard is the author of 'Debates in Continental Philosophy Conversations with Contemporary Thinkers', published 2004 under ISBN 9780823223183 and ISBN 0823223183.