The Lucid Vigil: Deconstruction, Desire and the Politics of Critique

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Stella Gaon provides the first fully philosophical account of the critical nature of deconstruction, and she does so by turning in an original way to psychoanalysis. Drawing on close readings of Freud and Laplanche, Gaon argues that Derridean deconstruction is driven by a normative investment in reason’s psychological force. Indeed, deconstruction is more faithful to the principle of reason than the various forms of critical theory prevalent today. For if one pursues the classical demand for rational grounds vigilantly, one finds that claims to ethical or political legitimacy cannot be rationally justified, because they are undone by logical undecidability. Gaon’s argument is borne out in the cases of Kantian deontology, Deweyan pragmatism, progressive pedagogy, Habermasian moral theory, Levinasian ethics and others. What emerges is the groundbreaking demonstration that deconstruction is impelled by a quasi-ethical critical drive, and that to read deconstructively is to radicalize the emancipatory practice of reason as self-critique. This important volume will be of great value to critical theorists as well as to Derrida scholars and researchers in social and political thought. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Note PART I: Naming the Stakes 1. The Danger of Rhetoric Notes 2. The Apocalyptic Tone of Philosophy Notes 3. Redefining the “Postmodern” Notes 4. Deconstructing Kantian Critique Notes PART II: The Ends of Education 5. From“Neo” to “Post”: Strategies in Theory Notes 6. Neomodernist Critical Pedagogy Notes 7. Pedagogy without Foundations: Feminism and Anti-Racism Notes 8. The Habermasian Gambit: A Critique of Discourse Ethics Notes PART III: On Deconstruction and Justice 9. Responsibility as Messianic Injunction Notes 10. Derrida Contra Levinas Notes 11. Conscience and the Aporia of Subjectivity Narcissism Melancholia Notes 12. The Desire for Reason Primal seduction and the logic of “afterwardsness” The ego and “primary” repression “Secondary” repression, afterwards Notes Conclusion: The Risk of a Certain Critique References Index