Life Death

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One of Jacques Derrida’s most provocative works, this text challenges and deconstructs the deeply rooted dichotomy of life and death in Western thought. Derrida reexamines the traditional philosophical understanding of their relationship through multidisciplinary analyses encompassing philosophy, linguistics, and life sciences. He engages with Freudian psychoanalysis, the philosophies of Nietzsche and Heidegger, and the works of geneticist François Jacob and epistemologist Georges Canguilhem to explore this complex relationship. Delivered over fourteen sessions between 1975 and 1976 at the École normale supérieure in Paris, the seminar was part of the preparation for students facing the agrégation, a highly competitive exam with the theme “Life and Death.” Derrida notably altered the title by omitting the coordinating conjunction, prompting a philosophical inquiry into the connection between life and death. He posits that death should not be viewed merely as the opposite of life or its ultimate truth, but as a factor that both limits and enables life. Through these engaging sessions, Derrida not only questions conventional understandings of life and death but also cultivates a novel perspective on what he terms “life death.”