Philosophy in a Time of Terror Dialogues with Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida

The idea for Philosophy in a Time of Terror was born hours after the attacks on 9/11 and was realized just weeks later when Giovanna Borradori sat down with Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida in New York City, in separate interviews, to evaluate the significance of the most destructive terrorist act ever perpetrated. This book marks an unprecedented encounter between two of the most influential thinkers of our age as here, for the first time, Habermas and Derrida overcome their mutual antagonism and agree to appear side by side. As the two philosophers 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 intellects of the century at work.

"9-11 is still calling. Who will answer? For Vassar professor Giovanna Borradori, who lived through 9-11 at her East Side apartment, that call goes out to philosophy. Her admirable response to her own grief and confusion was to interview two of Europe's foremost philosophers, Jurgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida. . . . [Philosophy in a Time of Terror] reminds us that the most constructive response to 9-11 may simply be to recognize the event as an opportunity to ask the decisive questions about ourselves and our place in the world."--Gregory Fried, Village Voice

"[Brague] looks back at the overarching idea of the premodern period--namely, the belief that the very nature of the world provides guidance for how human beings ought to live. . . . As Mr. Brague puts it, the order and beauty of the cosmos once provided powerful guidance that 'the battle for the good cause was not waged only in our "little hideout"'--the good cause being here, in part, the one aimed at thwarting forlorn purposelessness. In such a way, the universe provided something like a 'model for human action.'"--Daniel J. Mahoney, Wall Street Journal

"Many assumptions about politics were destroyed along with the World Trade Center, and Borradori seized the opportunity to ask Habermas and Derrida how their theories fared. These men represent two central strands of European philosophy--the one building on Enlightenment notions of universal rationality, the other suspicious of the commitments often hidden in its language. . . . This is a book without jargon or technicalities."--Library Journal

"The Habermas colloquy, the book's unquestionable highlight, runs to a crisp twenty pages. . . . One of the unwitting merits of this book is that it demonstrates the basic incommensurability between Habermas's and Derrida's understanding of philosophy itself."--Richard Wolin, New Republic

"Giovanna Borradori . . . experienced 9/11 as a New Yorker 50 blocks from ground zero, and believes in the 'scholarly interview' as an important form, aims straight at the top. In Philosophy in a Time of Terror, she nervily places the microphone before Europe's two most famous living philosophers--Germany's Jürgen Habermas and France's Jacques Derrida--and grills them on 9/11 and related events."--Carlin Romano, Philadelphia Inquier


Table of Contents
Preface
Philosophy in a Time of Terror
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Terrorism and the Legacy of the Enlightenment--Habermas and Derrida
Part One
Fundamentalism and Terror--A Dialogue with Jürgen Habermas
Reconstructing Terrorism--Habermas
Part Two
Autoimmunity: Real and Symbolic Suicides--A Dialogue with Jacques Derrida
Deconstructing Terrorism--Derrida