Europe, or the Infinite Task

Rodolphe Gasché is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Eugenio Donato Professor of Comparative Literature at the State University of New York at Buffalo. His most recent books are Views and Interviews: On "Deconstruction" in America (2007), and The Honor of Thinking: Critique, Theory, Philosophy (Stanford, 2007).

• @fmct:Contents @toc4:Acknowledgmentsiii Abbreviationsiii Introductioniii @toc1:Part I: Edmund Husserl @toc2:1Infinite Tasks000 2Universality and Spatial Form000 3Universality in the Making000 @toc1:Part II: Martin Heidegger @toc2:4Singular Essence000 5The Strangeness of Beginnings000 6The Originary World of Tragedy000 @toc1:Part III: Jan Patoka @toc2:7Care of the Soul000 8The Genealogy of Europe-Responsibility000 @toc1:Part IV: Jacques Derrida @toc2:9European Memories000 10This Little Thing that is Europe000 11De-Closing the Horizon000 Epilogue000 @toc4:Notes000 Bibliography000 Index000

"Europe, or the Infinite Task represents a much needed contribution to contemporary debates in political theory. Avoiding easy ways out or simplistic stances towards complex conceptual problems, Gasché faces the challenge of thinking about universality today with all its subtleties and perplexities. His book is not only an inspiring example of patient textual analysis and scholarly rigor, but also an invitation for the reader to face philosophical thinking in all its complexity—perhaps a practical exercise of the 'infinite task' Gasché wishes that we consider."—Javier Burdman, Theory & Event "Gasché is among the top continental philosophers working in the United States, and this sophisticated and stimulating book is perhaps his crowning achievement so far."—Robert Bernasconi, University of Memphis "In our ironic, post-philosophical epoch, it seems anachronistic and even foolish to write such an exhaustive philosophical treatise—in effect, four books in 412 pages. Despite this, Gasché offers an admirably unified argument thanks to his constant focus on 'question Europe'."—Philosophy in Review