radical atheism MER IDI AN Crossing Aesthetics Werner Hamacher Editor Stanford University Press Stanford California 2008 RADICAL ATH EISM Derrida and the Time ofL ife Martin Hagglund Stanford University Press Scanford, California © 2008 by rhe Board ofTrusrees of rhe Leland Sranford Junior University. All rights reserved. No parr of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval syscem withour rhe prior wrinen permission of Stanford University Press. Primed in (he Voiced Scates of Americ.1. on acid· free, archival.qualiry paper Library of Congress Caraloging.in.Publication Data Hagglund, Martin. Radical :teheism : Derrida and the rime of life I Marrin Hagglund. p. cm.-(Meridian, crossing aeSlhctics) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8047-0077-1 (cloth, alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8047-0078-8 (pbk. ,alk. paper) 1. Derrida, Jacques-Religion. 2. Acheism. 3. Deconsrruction. 4· Philosophy and religion. I. Title. II. Serics, Meridian (Stanford, Calif.) B24Jo.D484Hn 2008 2U' .8092-OC2 2 2008016110 COl1[ems Acknowledgments ix lntroduction § 1 Autoimmunity of Time: Derrid, ,nd Kmt 13 §2 Arche-Wriring: Derrid:t ~nd Husserl 50 §3 Arche-Violence: Derrida and Levin:ls 76 §4 Autoimmunity of Life: Derridas R:.dic,! Atheism 107 §5 Autoimmunity of Democracy: Derrid, ,nd bcbu 164 Notes 207 w"rks Cited 237 Index 219 Acknowledgments First of all, I want to thank Jonathan Culler and Richard Klein for their generous support and their insightful comments on the manuscript. I also want to thank Rodolphe Gasché and Ernesto Laclau for their responses to my work and their inspiring philosophical vigilance. My personal and intellectual friendship with David E. Johnson has been vital throughout the writing of this book. I also want to extend my profound gratitude to William Egginton and to all the other participants in our Philosophical Reading Group, for the singular intellectual energy that was channeled during our meetings. I owe a special debt to the Swedish essayist Horace Engdahl, not only for the encouragement he has provided over the years but also for the integrity of style he has displayed as a writer. Reading Engdahl’s essays taught me to always strive for clarity and to philosophize with the ham- mer. At various stages of the manuscript, I received valuable comments from Philip Adamek, Peter Gilgen, Anders Lundberg, Douglas McQueen- Thomson, and Jessica Smith. I am also grateful to Alberto Moreiras and Dan W. Smith for productive disagreements, and to Samir Haddad for stimulating discussions of the notion of ‘lesser violence’ in Derrida’s thought. At the last stages of writing, I benefited from the personal gen- erosity and intellectual inspiration of my friends in the Theory Reading Group at Cornell. A particular gratitude is due to my friend Niklas Bris- mar Pålsson, with whom I have shared matters of life and philosophy for more than ten years. Finally, I want to thank my parents and my sisters for always being there and for giving me more than I can comprehend. ix