University of Essex
Which employer did Simon Critchley work for between Feb 2002 and Apr 2002?
Simon Critchley Simon Critchley ( born 27 February 1960 ) is an English philosopher and the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York , USA . Challenging the ancient tradition that philosophy begins in wonder , Critchley argues that philosophy begins in disappointment . Two particular forms of disappointment inform Critchleys work : religious and political disappointment . While religious disappointment arises from a lack of faith and generates the problem of what is the meaning of life in the face of nihilism , political disappointment comes from the violent world we live in and raises the question of justice in a violently unjust world . In addition , to these two regions of research , Critchleys recent works have engaged in more experimental forms of writing on Shakespeare , Bowie , suicide , Greek tragedy and association football . Life and education . Simon Critchley was born on 27 February 1960 , in Hertfordshire , England , to a working-class family originally from Liverpool . He is a fan of Liverpool Football Club and has said that , it ‘maybe the governing passion of my life . My only religious commitment is to Liverpool Football Club.’ In grammar school , he studied history , sciences , languages ( French and Russian ) and English literature . During this time , he developed a lifelong interest in ancient history . After intentionally failing his school exams , Critchley worked a number of odd jobs , including in a pharmaceutical factory in which he sustained a severe injury to his left hand . During this time , he was a participant in the emerging Punk scene in England , playing in numerous bands that all failed . After studying for remedial O and A level exams at a community college while doing other odd jobs , Critchley went to university aged 22 . He went to the University of Essex to study literature , but switched to philosophy . Amongst his teachers were Jay Bernstein , Robert Bernasconi , Ludmilla Jordanova , Onora O’Neill , Frank Cioffi , Mike Weston , Roger Moss , and Gabriel Pearson . He also briefly participated in the Communist Students’ Society ( where he first read Althusser , Foucault , and Derrida ) as well as the Poetry Society . After graduating with First Class Honours and winning the Kanani Prize in Philosophy in 1985 , Critchley went to the University of Nice where he wrote his M.Phil . on overcoming metaphysics in Heidegger and Carnap with Dominique Janicaud . His other teachers were Clement Rosset and André Tosel . In 1987 , Critchley returned to the University of Essex to write his PhD , completed in 1988 , which was to become the basis for The Ethics of Deconstruction . Critchley became a University Fellow at University College Cardiff in 1988 . In 1989 , he returned to the University of Essex as Lecturer and where he would become Reader in 1995 and Full Professor in 1999 . During this time he serviced first as Deputy Director ( 1990–96 ) and then as Director ( 1997-2003 ) of the Centre for Theoretical Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences . From 1998-2004 , he was Directeur de Programme , College International de Philosophie . He has held visiting appointments at Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität ( 1997–98 , 2001 ) , University of Nijmegen ( 1997 ) , University of Sydney ( 2000 ) , University of Notre Dame ( 2002 ) , Cardozo Law School ( 2005 ) , University of Oslo ( 2006 ) and University of Texas ( 2010 ) . From 2009 to 2015 , he ran a summer school at University of Tilburg . He is also a Professor of Philosophy at the European Graduate School . Since 2004 , Critchley has been Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York , at which he became the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy in 2011 . Since 2015 , he has served on the board of the Onassis Foundation . In 2021 , Critchley was named by Academic Influence as one of the top 25 most influential philosophers of today . He discusses his biography in a recent episode of Time Sensitive . Overview of philosophical work . The Ethics of Deconstruction : Derrida and Levinas ( 1st ed. , Blackwell , 1992 ; 2nd ed. , Edinburgh University Press 1999 ; 3rd ed. , EUP 2014 ) Since its original publication in 1992 , The Ethics of Deconstruction has been an acclaimed work . Against the received understanding of Derrida as either a metaphysician with his own ‘infrastructure’ or as a value-free nihilist , Critchley argues that central to Derridas thinking is a conception of ethical experience . Specifically , this conception of ethical experience must be understood in Levinasian terms in which the other calls into question ones ego , self-consciousness , and ordinary comprehension . Critchley argues that this Levinasian conception of ethical experience informs Derridas deconstruction and develops the idea of clôtural reading . Very Little .. . Almost Nothing : Death , Philosophy , Literature ( Routledge , 1997/2nd expanded ed. , Routledge 2004 ) Critchleys second monograph begins from the problem of religious disappointment , which generates the question of the meaning of life . Through a long preamble on nihilism , Critchley rejects the view that an affirmation of finitude can redeem the meaning of life . Instead , he argues that the ultimate mark of human finitude is that we cannot find meaning for the finite . Rather , for Critchley , an adequate response to nihilism consists in seeing meaninglessness as a task or achievement . Critchley then develops this thesis through discussions of Blanchot , Levinas , Cavell , German Romanticism , Adorno , Derrida , Beckett , and Wallace Stevens . Ethics-Politics-Subjectivity : Essays on Derrida , Levinas , & Contemporary French Thought ( Verso , 1999 ) This collection brings together a number of previously published essays . Amongst these essays , Critchley discusses a variety of historical and contemporary figures ( e.g. , Hegel , Heidegger , Jean Genet , Derrida , Levinas , Richard Rorty , Laclau , Lacan , Jean-Luc Nancy , and Blanchot ) as well as topics ( e.g. , politics , subjectivity , race ( human categorization ) in the Western philosophical canon , psychoanalysis , comedy , friendship , and others ) . Continental Philosophy : A Very Short Introduction ( Oxford University Press , 2001 ) Critchleys Continental Philosophy : A Very Short Introduction sets out to establish three claims : ( 1 ) to demonstrate why Continental philosophy is a contested concept by looking at the history and meaning of the term as well as its relationship to analytic or Anglo-American philosophy ; ( 2 ) to show how it can be understood as a distinct set of philosophical traditions that cover a range of problems ; and ( 3 ) to argue that a more promising future for philosophy is to talk about philosophy as such without such professional squabbles between Continental and Anglo-American philosophy . Critchley defends these claims through discussions of such figures as Kant , Fichte , Hegel , Nietzsche , Husserl , Heidegger , Carnap , and others as well as such topics as the relationship between knowledge and wisdom , literature , science , politics , and nihilism . On Humour ( Routledge , 2002 ) In On Humour , Critchley explores the central yet peculiar role that humour , jokes , laughter , and smiling play in human life . Specifically , he defends the two-fold claim that humour both ( 1 ) engages our shared practices and mutual attunement with one another , while also ( 2 ) challenging those very social practices and sensibilities , showing how they might be transformed and become otherwise than they presently are . Things Merely Are : Philosophy in the poetry of Wallace Stevens ( Routledge , 2005 ) In Things Merely Are , Critchley argues for two claims : ( 1 ) that Wallace Stevenss poetry affords significant and illuminating philosophical insights and ( 2 ) that the best way to express such insights is poetically . Specifically , Critchley argues that Stevenss poetry offers readers a novel take on the relationship between mind , language and material things , which overcomes modern epistemology . The book also offers an extended engagement with the cinema of Terrence Malick . Infinitely Demanding : Ethics of Commitment , Politics of Resistance ( Verso , 2007 ) Addressing the topic of political disappointment , Critchley argues for a conception of ethical experience and subjectivity . Challenging the modern Kantian association of ethics and autonomy , Critchley argues for a ‘hetero-affective’ conception of ethical experience in which the subject is split between herself and a moral demand , which she experiences and yet cannot entirely fulfill . From this picture , Critchley develops an account of the experience of conscience before reflecting on the relationship between ones conscience and political action . The book argues for an ethical informed neo-anarchism . The Book of Dead Philosophers ( Granta Books , 2008 and Vintage , 2009 ) The Book of Dead Philosophers begins from the assumption that contemporary human life is not defined by a fear of death , but a terror of annihilation and what awaits us after death . Rejecting any escape from our death in either mindless accumulation of wealth or a metaphysical sanctuary , Critchley follows Cicero in exploring the view that ‘to philosophize is to learn how to die’ . To that end , Critchley discusses the deaths ( and lives ) of philosophers ranging from Thales and Plato to Confucius and Avicenna ( Ibn Sina ) , from Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia and Hegel to Heidegger and Frantz Fanon . On Heideggers Being and Time ( Routledge , 2008 ) On Heidegger’s Being and Time presents two ways of approaching Heideggers text . Reiner Schürmann’s contribution reads Heidegger ‘backward’ from the later work to the earlier Being and Time . Alternatively , Critchley reads Heidegger ‘forward’ through Heideggers inheritance of phenomenology . In his contribution , Critchley goes on to question the Heideggers conception of inauthentic/authentic . How to Stop Living and Start Worrying : Conversations with Carl Cederström ( Polity , 2010 ) How to Stop Living and Start Worrying consists of a series of interviews between Critchley and Carl Cederström based on a Swedish TV series . Here Critchley discusses his life and work through the themes of life , philosophy , death , love , humour , and authenticity . Impossible Objects ( Polity , 2012 ) Impossible Objects is a series of interviews between Critchley conducted between 2000 and 2011 . Critchley discusses his own work and development through a variety of topics ( e.g. , deconstruction , nihilism , politics , the literary , punk , tragedy , and more ) . The Faith of the Faithless : Experiments in Political Theology ( Verso , 2012 ) In The Faith of the Faithless , Critchley rethinks faith as a political concept without succumbing to the temptations of the atheistic dismissal of faith or the theistic embrace of faith . To that end , Critchley discusses Rousseau , Badiou , St . Paul , Heidegger , and others . He also defends his view of nonviolence from Zizek’s criticism . Stay , Illusion ! The Hamlet Doctrine ( Pantheon , 2013 ) Co-authored with Jamieson Webster , Stay , Illusion ! draws on various readings of Hamlet ( e.g. , Carl Schmitt , Walter Benjamin , Hegel , Freud , Lacan , and Nietzsche ) with the aim of using this collection of interpretations to offer a close and compelling reading of Hamlet . The Problem with Levinas ( Oxford University Press , 2015 ) Through four lectures , Critchley reflects on five questions concerning Levinas : ( 1 ) what method might we follow in reading Levinas? ; ( 2 ) what is Levinas’ fundamental problem? ; ( 3 ) what is the shape of that problem in his early writings? ; ( 4 ) what is Levinas’ answer to that problem? ; and ( 5 ) is Levinas’ answer the best available answer ? The book attempts to give a heterodox reading of Levinass work and a new understanding of its importance . ABC Of Impossibility ( Univocal , 2015 ) ABC of Impossibility consists of fragments from an allegedly abandoned work , which largely date from 2004-06 . The initial project was to develop a theory of impossible objects that would take the form of alphabetized entries . These entries would deal with various phenomena , concepts , qualities , places , sensations , persons and moods . Bowie ( OR Books , 2014 ; Expanded Edition – Serpent’s Tail , 2016 ) In Bowie , Critchley discusses the influence David Bowie’s music has had on him throughout his life as well as reflects on the philosophical depth of Bowies work . It is very much a fans book that attempts to confer the appropriate aesthetic dignity on Bowies work through a careful analysis of his lyrics and the exploration of themes of inauthenticity , isolation , truth and the longing for love . Memory Theatre ( Fitzcarraldo , 2014 ) Memory Theatre is a semi-fictional autobiographical story about the art of memory inspired by the work of Frances Yates and Adolfo Bioy Casares , but at its core is a concern with memory in relation to Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit . It is concerned with the building of a memory theatre , the delusive attempt to control ones relation to mortality and the progressive dismantling of the standard image of the philosopher . Notes on Suicide ( Fitzcarraldo , 2015 ) Against the prevailing tendency to either moralize against suicide or glorified self-murder , Critchley defends suicide as a phenomenon that should be thought about seriously and soberly . To that end , Critchley examines numerous suicides and reflects on the increase of suicide in our society . What We Think When We Think About Football ( Profile Books/Penguin , 2017 ) Critchley argues that football occupies a particular place in society in that it at once originates from sociality and solidarity ( e.g. , that many teams formed from local churches or various community groups ; the relation between a team and fans ) , while also being completely consumed by money , capital , and the dissolution and alienation of social life . It is an attempt to write a poetics of football . Tragedy , the Greeks , and Us ( Pantheon/Profile Books , 2019 ) In Tragedy , the Greeks , and Us , Critchley argues that tragedy articulates a philosophical orientation that challenges the traditional authority of philosophy by giving voice to what is contradictory , constricting , and limiting about human beings . In developing tragedys philosophy , he turns to the ancient sophist Gorgias and the sophistical practice of antilogia , which examines both sides of an issue so as to make the weaker argument appear stronger . In addition to Gorgias , Critchley discusses Aeschylus , Sophocles , Euripides , Plato , Aristotle , and others . Apply-degger ( Onasis Foundation , 2020 ) Apply-degger is a long-form , deep dive into the most important philosophical book of the last 100 years . Each episode of this podcast series will present one of the key concepts in Heidegger’s philosophy . Taken together , the episodes will lay out the entirety of Heidegger project for people who are curious , serious and interested , but who simply don’t have the time to sit down and read the 437 densely-written pages of the book . It is our hope that this series will show how Heidegger’s thinking might be applied to one’s life in ways which are illuminating , elevating and beneficial . Apply-degger is available for free as an audiobook on the Onasis Youtube channel as well as iTunes , Stitcher , and Spotify . Bald : 35 Philosophical Short Cuts ( Yale University Press , 2021 ) This volume brings together thirty-five essays , originally published in The New York Times , on a wide range of topics , from the dimensions of Plato’s academy and the mysteries of Eleusis to Philip K . Dick , Mormonism , money , and the joy and pain of Liverpool Football Club fans . Other work . The Stone : Since 2010 , Critchley has moderated The Stone in The New York Times , writing many essays himself . Contributions have included such thinkers as Linda Martín Alcoff , Seyla Benhabib , Gary Gutting , Philip Kitcher , Chris Lebron , Todd May , Jason Stanley , Peter Singer , and many others . The forum has been extremely popular and generated two collections of essays , co-edited by Critchley and Peter Catapano : The Stone Reader : Modern Philosophy in 133 Arguments ( W.W . Norton & Co. , 2015 ) and The Stone Reader : Modern Ethics in 77 Arguments ( W.W . Norton & Co. , 2017 ) . International Necronautical Society ( INS ) : Together with writer Tom McCarthy , Critchley is a founding member of the INS and serves as Head Philosopher . In its founding manifesto ( 1999 ) , the First Committee of the INS declared ( 1 ) that death is a space , which INS intends to explore and inhabit ; ( 2 ) that there is no beauty without death ; ( 3 ) that the task of INS is to bring death out into the world ; and ( 4 ) that the chief aim is to construct a means of conveying us into death . The founding manifesto as well as a number of other documents can be found in The Mattering of Matter : Documents from the Archive of the International Necronautical Society ( 2013 ) . Critchley and Simmons : Critchley is a part of the band Critchley and Simmons with John Simmons . They have released four albums : Humiliation ( 2004 ) ; The Majesty of the Absurd ( 2014 ) ; Ponders End ( 2017 ) ; and Moderate or Good , Occasionally Poor ( 2017 ) . Their music is available on Spotify , iTunes , and Soundcloud . Guardian Commentary on Heideggers Being and Time : In 2009 , Critchley wrote a series of articles for The Guardian . Debate with Slavoj Zizek : Critchley engaged in a public debate with Zizek . In response to Infinitely Demanding ( 2007 ) , Zizeks review ( London Review of Books , 2007 ) challenged Critchleys argument that a politics of resistance should not reproduce the violent sovereignty such a politics opposes . Critchley responded to Zizeks objection in Naked Punch and his own The Faith of the Faithless ( 2012 ) . Bibliography . - ( 1992 , 1999 , 2014 ) The Ethics of Deconstruction : Derrida and Levinas , Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press . - ( 1997 ) Very Little.. . Almost Nothing : Death , Philosophy , Literature , Routledge , London & New York ( 2nd Edition , 2004 ) . - ( 1999 ) Ethics-Politics-Subjectivity : Essays on Derrida , Levinas , and Contemporary French Thought , Verso , London ( Reissued , 2007 ) . - ( 2001 ) Continental Philosophy : A Very Short Introduction , Oxford University Press . - ( 2002 ) On Humour , Routledge , London . - ( 2005 ) On the Human Condition , with Dominique Janicaud & Eileen Brennan , Routledge , London . - ( 2005 ) Things Merely Are : Philosophy in the Poetry of Wallace Stevens , Routledge , London . - ( 2007 ) Infinitely Demanding . Ethics of Commitment , Politics of Resistance , Verso , London & New York . - ( 2008 ) The Book of Dead Philosophers , Granta Books , London ; Vintage , New York ; Melbourne University Press , Melbourne . - ( 2008 ) On Heidegger’s ‘Being and Time’ , with Reiner Schürmann , edited by Steven Levine , Routledge , London and New York . - ( 2008 ) Der Katechismus des Bürgers , Diaphanes Verlag , Berlin . - ( 2008 ) Democracy and Disappointment : On the Politics of Resistance ( DVD ) – Alain Badiou and Simon Critchley in Conversation , Slought Books , Philadelphia ASIN : B001AXTZIO - ( 2010 ) How to Stop Living and Start Worrying , Polity Press . - ( 2011 ) Impossible Objects , Polity Press . - ( 2011 ) International Necronautical Society : Offizielle Mitteilungen - ( 2012 ) The Mattering of Matter . Documents from the Archive of the International Necronautical Society , with Tom McCarthy , Sternberg Press , Berlin . - ( 2012 ) The Faith of the Faithless , Verso . - ( 2013 ) Stay , Illusion ! The Hamlet Doctrine , Pantheon ( North America ) ; Verso ( Europe ) . - ( 2014 ) Memory Theatre , Fitzcarraldo Editions ( UK ) . - ( 2014 ) Bowie , OR Books . - ( 2015 ) Suicide , Thought Catalog/Kindle Single . ASIN : B00YB0UZDC - ( 2015 ) Notes on Suicide , Fitzcarraldo Editions ( UK ) . - ( 2015 ) The Problem With Levinas , Oxford University Press . - ( 2015 ) ABC of Impossibility , Univocal . - ( 2017 ) What We Think About When We Think About Football , Profile Books . - ( 2019 ) Tragedy , the Greeks , and Us , Pantheon Press ( US ) , Profile Books ( UK ) . - ( 2020 ) Apply-degger ( Audio Book ; available free Onasis Youtube channel , iTunes , Stitcher , and Spotify ) - ( 2021 ) Bald : 35 Philosophical Short Cuts , Yale University Press ISBN 978-0300255966 - As ( co ) editor - ( 1991 ) Re-Reading Levinas , ed . with Robert Bernasconi , Indiana University Press , Bloomington . - ( 1996 ) Deconstructive Subjectivities , ed . with Peter Dews , State University of New York Press , Ithaca , NY . - ( 1996 ) Emmanuel Levinas : Basic Philosophical Writings , ed . with Adriaan T . Peperzak and Robert Bernasconi , Indiana University Press , Bloomington . - ( 1998 ) A Companion to Continental Philosophy , ed . with William R . Schroeder , Blackwell Publishing , Oxford . - ( 2002 ) The Cambridge Companion to Levinas , ed . with Robert Bernasconi , Cambridge University Press . - ( 2004 ) Laclau : A Critical Reader , ed . with Oliver Marchart , Routledge , London . - ( 2014 ) The Anarchist Turn , eds . Jacob Blumenfeld and Chiara Bottici , Pluto Books . - ( 2017 ) The Stone Reader : Modern Philosophy in 133 Arguments , ed . with Peter Catapano , W.W . Norton & Co . - ( 2017 ) Modern Ethics in 77 Arguments , ed . with Peter Catapano , W.W . Norton & Co . External links . - SimonCritchley.org – Website with interviews , reviews , bibliography of work etc .