The Question of Sacrifice

by Dennis King Keenan

Overview

In this concentrated and detailed look at questions surrounding the act of sacrifice, Dennis King Keenan discusses both the role and the meaning of sacrifice in our lives. Building on recent philosophical discussions on the gift and transcendence, Keenan covers new ground with this exploration of the religious, psychological, and ethical issues that sacrifice entails. According to Keenan, sacrifice is paradoxically called to sacrifice itself. But what does this necessary, yet impossible condition mean for living an ethical life? Along the way to an answer, Keenan considers the views of Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Bataille, Lacan, Levinas, Blanchot, Irigaray, Derrida, Kristeva, Nancy, and Zizek. This thoughtful and provocative work affords a sophisticated philosophical treatment of the question of sacrifice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253110565
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	06/14/2005
Series:	Studies in Continental Thought
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	232
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Dennis King Keenan is Professor of Philosophy at Fairfield University. He is author of Death and Responsibility: The "Work" of Levinas and editor of Hegel and Contemporary Continental Philosophy.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	IX
	List of Abbreviations	XI
	The Sacrifice of Sacrifice: Waiting without Hope	1
1	A Genealogy of Theories of Sacrifice: A History of Economics, Sexism, and Christo-centric Evolutionism	10
2	Kristeva: Mimesis and Sacrifice	33
3	Bataille: The Hegelian Dialectic, Death, and Sacrifice	45
4	Nietzsche: The Eternal Return of Sacrifice	59
5	Levinas: On Resorting to the Ethical Language of Sacrifice	74
6	Irigaray: The Sacrifice of the Sacrifice of Woman	89
7	Lacan/Zizek: The Repetition of the Sacrifice of the Sacrifice as an Ethical Act	105
8	Derrida: The Double Bind of Sacrifice	134
9	Hegel at the Chiasm of Derrida and Lacan/Zizek	160
10	The Sacrifice of the Eucharist	174
	Bibliography	189
	Index	203