Subject, evil and freedom in Jean-Luc Nancy’s early writings

Abstract

In this article we will focus on how Nancy characterizes the situation of thought from which he is challenged to think in his first books in solitude. In order to do so, we will mainly attend to the introductory texts of three of his first books (Le discurs de la syncope : Logodaedalus, Ego Sum and L’impératif catégorique). If we propose to approach these texts in this way, it is because through these articles we can draw two axes that, in our opinion, will be central to Nancy’s later thought, although it seems important to be able to detect them in these early writings ; since, in a certain way, the attempt to cross the dichotomies that derive from them will mark her evolution. We will also take advantage of the analyses made explicit in L’oubli de la philosophie.