Debates in Continental Philosophy: Conversations with Contemporary Thinkers 9780823291359

Citation preview

Debates in Continental Philosophy

Series Board James Bernauer Drucilla Cornell Thomas R. Flynn Kevin Hart Richard Kearney Jean-Luc Marion Adriaan Peperzak Thomas Sheehan David Tracy Rent de Vries Merold Westphal Edith Wyschogrod Michael Zimmerman

John D. Caputo, JerieJ eiJitor

PERSPECTIVES IN CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY

RICHARD KEARNEY

Debates in Continental Philosophy Converdatioru with Contemporary Tbinkerd

FORDHAM UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York • 2004

Copyright© 2004 Fordham University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other-except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Perspectives in Continental Philosophy Series, No . .37 ISSN 1089-.39.38 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Keamey, Richard. Debates in continental philosophy : conversations with contemporary thinkers I Richard Keamey. -1st ed. p. em.- (Perspectives in continental philosophy, ISSN 1089-.39.38 ; no . .37) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-82.32-2.317-5 (hard)-ISBN 0-82.32-2.318-.3 (pbk.) l. Philosophy, Modem-20th century. 2. Philosophy, European-20th century. .3. Philosophers-Europe-20th century-Interviews. I. Title. II. Series. B804.K4.3 2004 190.'9'04 -dc22 200.302.3772 Printed in the United States of America 08 07 06 05 04 5 4 .3 2 1 First edition

Contents

Preface

XL

PART ONE: RECENT DEBATES

1

Jacques Derrida Terror, Religion, and the New Politics

3

Jean-Luc Marion The Hermeneutics of Revelation

15

Paul Ricreur On Narrative Imagination On Life Stories On the Crisis of Authority The Power of the Possible Imagination, Testimony, and Trust

33

Georges Dumezil Myth, Ideology, Sovereignty

53

33 37

42 46

PART TWO: FROM DIALOGUES: THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL HERITAGE,

Emmanuel Levinas Ethics of the Infinite

1984

63

65

Herbert Marcuse The Philosophy of Art and Politics

85

Paul Ricreur The Poetics of Language and Myth The Creativity of Language Myth as the Bearer of Possible Worlds

99 99 117

Stanislas Breton Being, God, and the Poetics of Relation

126

Jacques Derrida Deconstruction and the Other

139

PART THREE: FROM STATES OF MIND,

1995

157

Julia Kristeva Strangers to Ourselves: The Hope of the Singular

159

Hans-Georg Gadamer Text Matters Hermeneutics and the Greeks Hermeneutics and Dialogue Hermeneutics and Politics Hermeneutics and Science Hermeneutics and Theology The Future of Hermeneutics

167 172 174

182

187 189

190

Jean-Fran~ois

192

George Steiner Culture: The Price You Pay

205

Paul Ricreur Universality and the Power of Difference

216

Urnberto Eco Chaosmos: The Return to the Middle Ages

225

PART FOUR: COLLOQUIES WITH RICHARD KEARNEY

229

Villanova Colloquy Against Omnipotence: God beyond Power

251

Athens Colloquy Between Selves and Others

246

Halifax Colloquy Between Being and God

255

Stony Brook Colloquy Confronting Imagination

261

Lyotard What Is Just?

viii • Contents

Boston Colloquy Theorizing the Gift

284

Dublin Colloquy

505

Thinking Is Dangerous AppeniJix: Philosophy as Dialogue

527

Not&J

555

IniJex

557

Preface

The present volume brings together twenty-one dialogues which I conducted over recent years in the area of Continental thought. Part 1 features previously unpublished exchanges, ranging from the conversation with Georges Dumezil, one of the founding fathers of structural anthropology, to more recent debates with Jacques Derrida, Paul Ricceur, and Jean-Luc Marion. Part 2 contains interviews held with Continental thinkers originally published in 1984 by Manchester University Press under the title Dialogued with Contemporary ContinentaL Thinlcerd: The Phenomenological Heritage. While some of these have since been anthologized, the original volume has been out of print since the early 1990s. The third part of the book features a selection of interviews from two of my later volumes, Vi.Jiond of Europe: Converdationd on the Legacy and Future of Europe (1992) and Stated of Mind (1995). This section includes conversations with Julia Kristeva, Umberto Eco, George Steiner, and Paul Ricceur, recorded between 1991 and 1993 as part of a series for Irish Public Television (RTE). It also contains two subsequent exchanges with Jean-Fran