On Touching—Jean-Luc Nancy

Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) was Director of Studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and Professor of Humanities at the University of California, Irvine. Among the most recent of his many books to have been translated into English are Rogues (2005), Eyes of the University (2004), For What Tomorrow... with Elisabeth Roudinesco (2004), Counterpath with Catherine Malabou (2004), Negotiations (2002), Who's Afraid of Philosophy? (2002), and Without Alibi (2002). All of these have been published by the Stanford University Press.

"The translation of On Touching: Jean-Luc Nancy is a momentous event, for this is one of the greatest, most important works in Derrida's immense oeuvre. It undertakes nothing less than a deconstruction of the phenomenological principle of principles, intuitionism, and the touchstone experience called touching. In a circulation through the history of philosophy since Aristotle up to the work of his contemporary and beloved friend Jean-Luc Nancy, the epochal thinker of touch, this book comes from and goes to the very heart of Derrida's thought."—Peggy Kamuf,University of Southern California

• @fmct:Contents @toc4:Forewordiii Translator's Prefaceiii @toc2:"When our eyes touch "000 @toc3:Signing a Question--from Aristotle @toc1:Part I: This Is--of the Other @toc2:1. Psyche000 @toc3:"Around her, with such exact and cruel knowledge" @toc2:2. Spacings000 @toc3:The Incommensurable, Syncope, and Words Beginning with ex- @toc2:3. This Is My Body000 @toc3:Points Already: Counterpoint, Mourning Psyche, and the Hand of @toc2:4. The Untouchable, or the Vow of Abstinence000 @toc3:The Exorbitant, 1--Tact "beyond the possible"--Stroking, Striking, Thinking, Weighing: Mourning Eros and the Other Hand of @toc2:5. Tender000 @toc3:This Is My Heart, "the heart of another" @toc2:6. Nothing to Do with Sight: "There's no 'the' sense of touch"000 @toc3:Haptics, techne, or Body Ecotechnics @toc1:Part II: Exemplary Stories of the "Flesh" @toc2:7. Tangent I000 @toc3:Hand of Man, Hand of God @toc2:8. Tangent II000 @toc3:"For example, my hand"--"The hand itself"--"For example, the finger"--"For example, 'I feel my heart'" @toc2:9. Tangent III000 @toc3:The Exorbitant, 2, "Crystallization of the impossible": "Flesh," and, again, "For example, my hand" @toc2:10. Tangent IV000 @toc3:Tangency and Contingency, 1: The "question of technics" and the "aporias" of Flesh, "(contact, at bottom)" @toc2:11. Tangent V000 @toc3:Tangency and Contingency, 2: "The 'merciful hand of the Father,' with which he thus touches us, is the Son. the Word that is 'the touch that touches the Soul' (toque de la Divinidadel toque que toca al alma)" @toc1:Part III: Punctuations: "And you." @toc2:12. "To self-touch you"000 @toc3:Touching--Language and the Heart @toc2:13. "And to you." The Incalculable000 @toc3:Exactitude, Punctuality, Punctuation @toc2:Salve000 @toc3:Untimely Postscript, for Want of a Final Retouch @toc1: @toc2:Salut to you, salut to the blind we become000 @tocca:Jean-Luc Nancy @toc4:Notes000 Index000