Derrida's Secret : : Perjury, Testimony, Oath / / Charles Barbour.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Edinburgh University Press Complete eBook-Package 2017
• VerfasserIn: Barbour, Charles,
• Place / Publishing House: Edinburgh : : Edinburgh University Press, , [2022]; ©2017
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Incitements : INCI
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (304 p.) :; 1 B/W illustrations

A new philosophical reflection on the secret and its importance to our contemporary political experienceThe Snowden Affair, Wikileaks, the ‘lone wolf’ terrorist, Clinton’s private email account – the secret is arguably the central element of our contemporary political experience. Now, Charles Barbour looks at the basic ontological question ‘what is a secret?’Organised as a reflection on Jacques Derrida’s later writings on secrecy, four chapters each look at a separate problematic: society and the oath, literature and testimony, philosophy and deception, and time and death.Barbour shows that secrecy is not a negation of our relations with others, but a necessary condition of those relations. We can only reveal ourselves to one another (and, indeed, to anything other) insofar as we conceal as well.Key FeaturesDevelops a unique reading of the later work of the philosopher Jacques Derrida, particularly his largely overlooked discussions of the secret in his writings and seminarsCompares Derrida’s work on the secret with other important political thinkers, including Deleuze, Schmitt, Arendt, Bataille and AgambenDraws parallels with the work of German sociologist Georg Simmel, showing Derrida's significance for sociological thoughtConnects Derrida’s work to a series of philosophical debates in the analytic tradition, such as the problems of consciousness, self-deception and other minds

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction: Cavernosis Anfractibus -- 1 Under Oath: Secrecy, Perjury and the Social Bond -- 2 Open Secrets: Literature, Politics and Testimonial Truth -- 3 Between Two Solitudes: Self-Deception, Consciousness and the Other Mind -- 4 Being Alone: Death, Solitude and the End of the World -- Conclusion: Secretions -- Bibliography -- Index