Exemplarity and Chosenness Rosenzweig and Derrida on the Nation of Philosophy [Hardcover]

Exemplarity and Chosennessis a combined study of the philosophies of Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) and Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929) that explores the question: How may we account for the possibility of philosophy, of universalism in thinking, without denying that all thinking is also idiomatic and particular? The book traces Derrida's interest in this topic, particularly emphasizing his work on philosophical nationality and his insight that philosophy is challenged in a special way by its particular national instantiations and that, conversely, discourses invoking a nationality comprise a philosophical ambition, a claim to being exemplary. Taking as its cue Derrida's readings of German-Jewish authors and his ongoing interest in questions of Jewishness, this book pairs his philosophy with that of Franz Rosenzweig, who developed a theory of Judaism for which election is essential and who understood chosenness in an exemplarist sense as constitutive of human individuality as well as of the Jews' role in universal human history.

Dana Hollander holds the Canada Research Chair in Modern Jewish Thought at the Department of Religious Studies, McMaster University. Her areas of research are continental philosophy, modern Jewish thought, and German-Jewish studies. She is the translator of Jacob Taubes'sThe Political Theology of Paul(Stanford, 2004). Dana Hollander'sExemplarity and Chosennessrepresents a major contribution to the study of Derrida and Rosenzweig and the rapidly expanding field of new religio-philosophical studies. The scholarship represented here is extraordinary in both range and depth. Hollander's ability to draw subtle and profound connections between texts is remarkable. Her fine analytic and literary readings produce strong new insights and original formulations of the problematics of nationalism, universalism, and exemplarity. This is a book that must be read by anyone interested in Jewish Studies, religion and philoslã.