Raising the tone of philosophy

About this book

Jacques Derrida's work on voice and tonality, particularly his reading of Plato to critique philosophy's reliance on the spoken word, is well-known to critics and students in the United States. But Derrida's work on Immanuel Kant in this area has been misunderstood - or ignored - because the relevant texts have been unavailable in English. In Raising the Tone of Philosophy, Peter Fenves expands the context of Derrida's discussion by presenting the first English translations of two of Kant's important late essays, "On a Newly Arisen Superior Tone in Philosophy" and "Announcement of a Near Conclusion of a Treaty for Eternal Peace in Philosophy." The annotations that accompany the essays indicate the complex array of philosophical, political, and historical issues that Kant addresses. The book also includes a revised translation, by John Leavey, Jr., of Derrida's "On a Newly Arisen Apocalyptic Tone in Philosophy," which rewrites and reorients Kant's essays. In his introduction to this collection, Fenves examines the emergence of tone as an explicit philosophical topic and explores the connections between the last writings of Kant and certain recent ones of Derrida. Observing that Derrida continues the speculation that Kant begins, Fenves proposes that these essays reveal tonality and the "end" of philosophy to be perennial compulsions. Raising the Tone of Philosophy promises to enhance and complicate the theoretical work that explores the connections between deconstruction and philosophy.