The Animal That Therefore I Am

The Animal That Therefore I Am is the long-awaited translation of the complete text of Jacques Derrida¿s ten-hour address to the 1997 C¿sy conference entitled ¿The Autobiographical Animal,¿ the third of four such colloquia on his work. The book was assembled posthumously on the basis of two published sections, one written and recorded session, and one informal recorded session.
The book is at once an affectionate look back over the multiple roles played by animals in Derrida¿s work and a profound philosophical investigation and critique of the relegation of animal life that takes place as a result of the distinction¿dating from Descartes¿between man as thinking animal and every other living species. That starts with the very fact of the line of separation drawn between the human and the millions of other species that are reduced to a single ¿the animal.¿ Derrida finds that distinction, or versions of it, surfacing in thinkers as far apart as Descartes, Kant, Heidegger, Lacan, a