Major works Jean-Luc Nancy

1 major works

1.1 les fins de l homme
1.2 la communauté désœuvrée
1.3 l expérience de la liberté
1.4 le sens du monde
1.5 Être singulier pluriel

major works
les fins de l homme

in 1980, nancy , lacoue-labarthe organized conference @ centre culturel international de cerisy-la-salle on derrida , politics entitled les fins de l homme ( ends of man ). conference solidified derrida’s place @ forefront of contemporary philosophy, , place begin in-depth conversation between philosophy , contemporary politics. further desire rethink political, nancy , lacoue-labarthe set in same year centre de recherches philosophiques sur la politique (centre philosophical research on political). centre dedicated pursuing philosophical rather empirical approaches political questions, , supported such speakers claude lefort , jean-françois lyotard. 1984, however, nancy , lacoue-labarthe dissatisfied direction work @ centre taking, , closed down.

during period lacoue-labarthe , nancy produced several important papers, , separately. of these texts appear in les fins de l homme à partir du travail de jacques derrida: colloque de cerisy, 23 juillet-2 août 1980 (1981), rejouer le politique (1981), la retrait du politique (1983), , le mythe nazi (1991, revised edition; published les méchanismes du fascisme, 1981). many of these texts gathered in translation in retreating political (1997).

la communauté désœuvrée

nancy s first book on question of community, la communauté désœuvrée (the inoperative community, 1986), perhaps best-known work. text introduction of main philosophical themes nancy continued work with. nancy traces influence of notion of community concepts of experience, discourse, , individual, , argues has dominated modern thought. discarding popular notions, nancy redefines community, asking can if reduced neither collection of separate individuals, nor hypostasized communal substance, e.g., fascism. writes our attempt design society according pre-planned definitions leads social violence , political terror, posing social , political question of how proceed development of society knowledge in mind. la communauté désœuvrée means community not result of production, social, economic or political (nationalist) production; not une œuvre, work of art ( œuvre d art , art here understood in sense of artifice ).

community becomes single thing (body, mind, fatherland, leader...) ...necessarily loses in of being-in-common. or, loses or defines it. yields being-together being of togetherness. truth of community, on contrary, resides in retreat of such being. (preface, xxxix).

l expérience de la liberté

nancy s dissertation doctorat d État looked @ works of kant, schelling, sartre , heidegger, , concentrated on treatment of topic of freedom. published in 1988 l expérience de la liberté (the experience of freedom). since then, nancy has continued concentrate on developing reorientation of heidegger’s work. nancy treats freedom property of individual or collectivity, , looks non-subjective freedom attempt think existential or finite origin every freedom. nancy argues necessary think freedom in finite being, because think of property of infinite subject make finite being limit of freedom. existence of other necessary condition of freedom, rather limitation.

le sens du monde

nancy addresses world in contemporary global configuration in other writings on freedom, justice , sovereignty. in 1993 book le sens du monde (the sense of world), asks mean saying live in 1 world, , how our sense of world changed saying situated within world, rather above or apart it. nancy, world, or existence, our ontological responsibility, precedes political, judicial , moral responsibility. describes our being in world exposure naked existence, without possibility of support fundamental metaphysical order or cause. contemporary existence no longer has recourse divine framework, case in feudal society meaning , course of life predetermined. contingency of our naked existence ontological question main challenge of our existence in contemporary global society.

all of these themes relating world taken again nancy in 2002 book la création du monde ou la mondialisation (the creation of world or globalization), makes distinction between globalization deterministic process , mondialisation open-ended world-forming process. here, connects critique marx s critique of political economy, saw free labour produces world. nancy argues authentic dwelling in world must concerned creation of meaning (enjoyment) , not final purposes, closed essences, , exclusive worldviews. present system of expanding cities , nodes in planetary techno-scientific network (tied capitalism) leads loss of world, because world treated object (globe), though self-deconstruction of ontotheology increasingly made subject of own creation.

Être singulier pluriel

in book Être singulier pluriel (being singular plural, 2000), nancy tackles question of how can speak of plurality of without making singular identity. premise of title essay in book there no being without being-with, not come before (i.e., dasein not precede mitsein) , there no existence without co-existence. in extension thoughts on freedom, community, , sense of world, imagines being-with mutual exposure 1 preserves freedom of , , community not subject exterior or pre-existent definition.

“there no meaning if meaning not shared, , not because there ultimate or first signification beings have in common, because meaning sharing of being.”

the 5 essays follow title piece continue develop nancy’s philosophy through discussions of sovereignty, war , technology, ecotechnics, identity, gulf war , sarajevo. nancy’s central concern in these essays remains being-with , uses discuss issues of psychoanalysis, politics , multiculturalism, looking @ notions of self , other in current contexts.