Derrida and the Inheritance of Democracy [Paperback]

Derrida and the Inheritance of Democracy provides a theoretically rich and accessible account of Derrida's political philosophy. Demonstrating the key role inheritance plays in Derridas thinking, Samir Haddad develops a general theory of inheritance and shows how it is essential to democratic action. He transforms Derridas well-known idea of democracy to come into active engagement with democratic traditions. Haddad focuses on issues such as hospitality, justice, normativity, violence, friendship, birth, and the nature of democracy as he reads these deeply political writings.

[T]he readers of this book will gain significant insight into the Derridas paradoxical notion of the inheritance of a democracy to come. Haddads book should therefore be considered an authoritative text on Derrida and democratic theory.Derrida and the Inheritance of Democracy is an excellent book, advancing an original, thoughtprovoking thesis about one of the most important ideas in the later Derridas political philosophy. Haddads argumentation is extraordinarily clear throughoutwhich is no small feat for a text on Derridaand grounded in a thorough knowledge of the relevant literature. This book should be accessible to graduate students, although probably not to most undergraduate students. I would recommend it strongly to anyone interested in the later Derrida or in contemporary political philosophy.

List of Abbreviations

Introduction: Derridas Legacies

1. The Structure of Aporia

2. Derridean Inheritance

3. Inheriting Democracy to Come

4. Questioning Normativity

5. Politics of Friendship as Democratic Inheritance

6. Inheriting Birth

Conclusion: Inheriting Derridas Legacies

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Samir Haddad is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University.

Haddad lays out with unprecedented clarity some key features of Derrida's later thinking on several crucial ethical and pollÓ7