Philosophy in a Time of Terror

[Dave Monroe]

Borradori, Giovanna.  Philosophy in a Time of Terror:
   Dialogues with Jurgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida.
   Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2003.

The idea for Philosophy in a Time of Terror was born
hours after the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and came to
realization just weeks later when Giovanna Borradori
sat down with Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida, in
separate interviews, in New York City. Habermas and
Derrida evaluated the significance of the most
destructive terrorist attack ever perpetrated. The
resulting book is an unprecedented encounter between
two of the most influential thinkers of our age: here
for the first time Habermas and Derrida overcome their
antagonism and agree to appear side by side in this
book. 

In her introduction, Borradori contends that
philosophy has an invaluable contribution to make to
the understanding of terrorism. Just as the traumas
produced by colonialism, totalitarianism, and the
Holocaust wrote the history of the twentieth century,
the history of the twenty-first century is already
signed by global terrorism. Each dialogue, accompanied
by a critical essay, recognizes the magnitude of this
upcoming challenge. Characteristically, Habermas's
dialogue is dense, compact, and elegantly traditional.
Derrida's, on the other hand, takes the reader on a
long, winding, and unpredictable road. Yet unexpected
agreements emerge between them: both have a deep
suspicion of the concept of "terrorism" and see the
need for a transition from classical international
law, premised on the model of nation-states, to a new
cosmopolitan order based on continental alliances. 

As Derrida and Habermas disassemble and reassemble
what we think we know about terrorism, they break from
the familiar social and political rhetoric
increasingly polarized between good and evil. In this
process, we watch two of the greatest philosophical
minds at work.

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/15789.ctl

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