21 February 2019, Spinoza Lectures, Catherine Malabou

Abstract:
In contemporary Western philosophy, destruction or deconstruction of metaphysics has been presented by prominent thinkers like Levinas, Derrida or Schürmann as the liberation of an an-archic way of thinking. The possibility of questioning and acting beyond the «arkhè», beyond the principle (commandment and beginning at the same time), has opened new perspectives in ontology and ethics. Levinas, for example, characterizes the relation to the Other in terms of «an-archic responsibility». Interestingly, such an ontological and ethical anarchy has always been strictly distinguished from political anarchism. Can we envisage a confrontation between the two traditions? Is "post anarchism" a satisfactory way of setting it up?