Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
Theory and Practice : The Seminars of Jacques Derrida - Jacques Derrida
eTextbook alternate format product

Instant online reading.
Don't wait for delivery!

Theory and Practice

By: Jacques Derrida, Geoffrey Bennington (Editor), Peggy Kamuf (Editor), David Wills (Translator)

Paperback | 1 April 2024 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $49.95

$42.75

14%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $10.69 with

 or 

Ships in 5 to 7 business days

Now in paperback, nine lectures from Jacques Derrida that challenge the influential Marxist distinction between thinking and acting.

Theory and Practice is a series of nine lectures that Jacques Derrida delivered at the Ecole Normale Superieure in 1976 and 1977. The topic of “theory and practice” was associated above all with Marxist discourse and particularly the influential interpretation of Marx by Louis Althusser. Derrida’s many questions to Althusser and other thinkers aim at unsettling the distinction between thinking and acting.
 
Derrida’s investigations set out from Marx’s “Theses on Feuerbach,” in particular the eleventh thesis, which has often been taken as a mantra for the “end of philosophy,” to be brought about by Marxist practice. Derrida argues, however, that Althusser has no such end in view and that his discourse remains resolutely philosophical, even as it promotes the theory/practice pair as primary values. This seminar also draws fascinating connections between Marxist thought and Heidegger and features Derrida’s signature reconsideration of the dichotomy between doing and thinking. This text, available for the first time in English, shows that Derrida was doing important work on Marx long before Specters of Marx. As with the other volumes in this series, it gives readers an unparalleled glimpse into Derrida’s thinking at its best—spontaneous, unpredictable, and groundbreaking.
Industry Reviews
"For Anglophone readers who view deconstruction as a set of arguments about language and literature or see Derrida's early 1990s exploration of Marxism as weak and belated, Theory and Practice is enlightening." * Los Angeles Review of Books *
"Wills's nuanced, word-play-sensitive translation includes foreign terms for those with ears to hear the etymological associations so important to Derrida's arguments and presents a crisp, clear, elegant statement of the author's text. . . . Summing Up: Recommended." * CHOICE *
"Jacques Derrida's Theory and Practice, a seminar he taught at the Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS) over the academic year 1976-1977, has all the signs of being a highly provocative text. . . . Derrida's readings are always enlightening. And in David Wills's excellent translation, we are confronted with rigorous and probing investigations of the theory/practice opposition, which weave together Marx and Althusser with Kant, Heidegger, and Aristotle in surprising ways." -- Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

More in Philosophy

Religion For Thought : Writings and Lectures, Volume 5 - Paul Ricoeur
Quantum 2.0 : The Past, Present, and Future of Quantum Physics - Paul Davies
In Praise of the Earth : A Journey into the Garden - Byung-Chul Han
The Power of Choice - Neale Daniher

RRP $39.99

$29.95

25%
OFF
The Holographic Universe - Michael Talbot
Utopia for Realists : And How We Can Get There - Rutger Bregman

RRP $26.99

$19.75

27%
OFF
Letters from a Stoic : The Ancient Classic - Seneca

RRP $24.95

$21.75

13%
OFF
Start With Why : How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action - Simon Sinek
On Bullshit : Anniversary Edition - Harry G. Frankfurt
The Seeker and the Sage - Brigid Delaney

RRP $32.99

$26.99

18%
OFF
Plain Life : On thinking, feeling and deciding - Antonia Pont

RRP $34.99

$29.99

14%
OFF
Monsters : What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People? - Claire Dederer
On the Shortness of Life : The Stoic Classic - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

RRP $24.95

$21.75

13%
OFF
The Golden Road : How Ancient India Transformed the World - William Dalrymple
Wabi Sabi : Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life - Beth Kempton
The Prophet : Penguin Classics Hardcover - Kahlil Gibran

RRP $32.99

$26.99

18%
OFF