Simon Critchley

Simon Critchley (born 27 February 1960) is an English philosopher and the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the

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 Derrida's 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 one's ego, self-consciousness, and ordinary comprehension. Critchley argues that this Levinasian conception of ethical experience informs Derrida's deconstruction and develops the idea of clôtural reading.^[25]

Very Little ... Almost Nothing: Death, Philosophy, Literature (Routledge, 1997/2nd expanded ed., Routledge 2004)

Critchley's second monograph begins from the problem of religious disappointment, which generates the question of the meaning of life. Through a long preamble on

In Things Merely Are, Critchley argues for two claims: (1) that Wallace Stevens's poetry affords significant and illuminating philosophical insights and (2) that the best way to express such insights is poetically. Specifically, Critchley argues that Stevens's poetry offers readers a novel take on the relationship between mind, language and material things, which overcomes modern epistemology.^[30] The book also offers an extended engagement with the cinema of Terrence Malick.^[31]

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

On Heidegger's Being and Time presents two ways of approaching Heidegger's text. Reiner Schürmann’s contribution reads Heidegger ‘backward’ from the later work to the earlier Being and Time. Alternatively, Critchley reads Heidegger ‘forward’ through Heidegger's inheritance of phenomenology.^[36] In his contribution, Critchley goes on to question the Heidegger's conception of inauthentic/authentic.^[37]

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.,

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 Levinas's work and a new understanding of its importance.^[41]

ABC Of Impossibility (Univocal, 2015)

ABC of Impossibility consists of fragments from an allegedly abandoned work, which largely date from 2004 to 2006. 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.^[42]

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 Bowie's work. It is very much a fan's book that attempts to confer the appropriate aesthetic dignity on Bowie's 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

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.^[43]

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 tragedy's 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.^[44]

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.^[45]

Other work

The Stone: Since 2010, Critchley has moderated

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).^[46]

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.^[47]

Guardian Commentary on Heidegger's 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

Bibliography

• (1992, 1999, 2014) The Ethics of Deconstruction: Derrida and Levinas, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  ISBN 978-0748689323
• (1997) Very Little... Almost Nothing: Death, Philosophy, Literature, Routledge, London & New York (2nd Edition, 2004).
  ISBN 978-0415340496
• (1999) Ethics-Politics-Subjectivity: Essays on Derrida, Levinas, and Contemporary French Thought, Verso, London (Reissued, 2007).
  ISBN 978-1844673513
• (2001) Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press.
  ISBN 978-0192853592
• (2002) On Humour, Routledge, London
  ISBN 978-0415251211
  .
• (2005) On the Human Condition, with
  ISBN 978-0415327961
• (2005) Things Merely Are: Philosophy in the Poetry of Wallace Stevens, Routledge, London.
  ISBN 978-0415356312
• (2007) Infinitely Demanding. Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance, Verso, London & New York.
  ISBN 978-1781680179
• (2008) The Book of Dead Philosophers, Granta Books, London; Vintage, New York; Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
  ISBN 978-0307390431
• (2008) On Heidegger’s ‘Being and Time’, with Reiner Schürmann, edited by Steven Levine, Routledge, London and New York.
  ISBN 978-0415775960
• (2008) Der Katechismus des Bürgers, Diaphanes Verlag, Berlin.
  ISBN 978-3037340325
• (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
  ISBN 978-0745650395
  .
• (2011) Impossible Objects, Polity Press
  ISBN 978-0745653211
  .
• (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.
  ISBN 978-3943365344
• (2012) The Faith of the Faithless, Verso.
  ISBN 978-1781681688
• (2013) Stay, Illusion! The Hamlet Doctrine, Pantheon (North America); Verso (Europe).
  ISBN 978-0307950482
• (2014) Memory Theatre, Fitzcarraldo Editions (UK).
  ISBN 978-0992974718
• (2014) Bowie, OR Books.
  ISBN 978-1939293541
• (2015) Suicide, Thought Catalog/Kindle Single. ASIN: B00YB0UZDC
• (2015) Notes on Suicide, Fitzcarraldo Editions (UK).
  ISBN 978-1910695067
• (2015) The Problem With Levinas, Oxford University Press.
  ISBN 978-0198738763
• (2015) ABC of Impossibility, Univocal.
  ISBN 978-1937561499
• (2017) What We Think About When We Think About Football, Profile Books.
  ISBN 978-1781259214
• (2019) Tragedy, the Greeks, and Us, Pantheon Press (US), Profile Books (UK).
  ISBN 978-1524747947
• (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.
  ISBN 978-0253206244
• (1996) Deconstructive Subjectivities, ed. with Peter Dews, State University of New York Press, Ithaca, NY.
  ISBN 978-0791427248
• (1996) Emmanuel Levinas: Basic Philosophical Writings, ed. with Adriaan T. Peperzak and Robert Bernasconi, Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
  ISBN 978-0253210791
• (1998) A Companion to Continental Philosophy, ed. with
  ISBN 978-0631190134
• (2002) The Cambridge Companion to Levinas, ed. with Robert Bernasconi, Cambridge University Press.
  ISBN 978-0521665650
• (2004) Laclau: A Critical Reader, ed. with Oliver Marchart, Routledge, London.
  ISBN 978-0415238441
• (2014) The Anarchist Turn, eds. Jacob Blumenfeld and
  ISBN 978-0745333427
• (2017) The Stone Reader: Modern Philosophy in 133 Arguments, ed. with Peter Catapano, W.W. Norton & Co.
  ISBN 978-1631490712
• (2017) Modern Ethics in 77 Arguments, ed. with Peter Catapano, W.W. Norton & Co.
  ISBN 978-1631492983
• (2022) Question Everything: A Stone Reader, ed. with Peter Catapano, W.W. Norton & Co.
  ISBN 978-1324091837

External links

• SimonCritchley.org – Website with interviews, reviews, bibliography of work etc.
• "Violent Thoughts About Slavoj Zizek". nakedpunch.com. Archived from the original on 20 August 2016. Retrieved 10 April 2015.