Raising the Tone of Philosophy: Late Essays by Immanuel Kant, Transformative Critique by Jacques Derrida

Abstract

In Raising the Tone of Peter Fenves expands the context of Jacques Derrida's work on voice and tonality 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 book also includes a revised translation, by John Leavey, of Derrida's On a Newly Arisen Apocalyptic Tone in Philosophy, which rewrites and reorients Kant's essays. After showing how Kant and Derrida concur on at least one point -- the voice of reason guards a secret -- Fenves proposes that these essays reveal the ineluctable tonality of all philosophical texts, especially those that wish to announce an end to philosophy. Not only an indispensable text for readers of Kant and Derrida; it also encourages our hopes for that degree of clarity and light which we mere mortals may fleetingly enjoy. -- Michigan Quarterly ReviewFenves has done an admirable job of tracing the occasion of Kant's polemics on tone. -- Journal of Aesthetics and Art CriticismThis handy volume makes available [Derrida's] 'deconstructive' analysis of the Kantian critical tradition which has been heretofore unavailable to the English reading public. -- Reader's ReviewThe chances of finding Derrida together with a philosopher like Kant are slim. In Peter Fenves's impeccably edited Raising the Tone of such an improbability is not only realized but is precisely what is at stake. -- TLS