Aporias : dying--awaiting (one another at) the "limits of truth" (mourir--s'attendre aux "limites de la vérité") /

An aporia is a contradiction or a dialectical impasse (here distinguished from logical contradictions as well as from antinomies), the standard examples being those to which Socrates brought his interlocutors in Plato's early dialogues. Derrida's aporias concern death and dying. He has three starting points. One is his early essay "Ousia and Gramm^D=e," to whose details he makes some changes. A second is essays of Seneca and Diderot (Diderot commenting on Seneca), who chide us for complaining of the brevity of life when we waste so much of it--themes that occupy Derrida for the first half of the work. The third is remarks of Heidegger about death being "the possibility of the absolute impossibility of Dasein," which are the focus of the latter half. Derrida raises questions about the standing of "the possibility of impossibility," as well as conceiving of life as "awaiting death" or "expecting death." There are also puzzles about borders and limits, which play a dual role with respect to possibility/impossibility. The text was originally presented at a colloquium at Cerisy. Graduate; faculty.

In this brief but dense book, the French philosopher examines the meaning of death. He proceeds, as usual, by minute examination of texts, beginning with Diderot and Cicero but soon moving to his favorite, Heidegger. Since one cannot experience one's death, dying must be viewed as a limiting concept, Derrida argues. This leads him to compare it with other boundaries between concepts and with political borders. Death straddles the gap between nature and culture, and its peculiar qualities enable Derrida both to continue and to challenge philosophy in the style of Heidegger, whose analysis of death in Being and Time he compares with the historical account of Phillippe Aries in Western Attitudes Toward Death (Johns Hopkins, 1973) in order to show how philosophy and history relate to each other. This short but powerful dose of Derrida will be of interest to his many admirers.-- David Gordon, Bowling Green State Univ., Ohio (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.