Overview

The four talks collected here transcribe lectures delivered to an audience of children between the ages of ten and fourteen, under the auspices of the ""little dialogues"" series at the Montreuil's center for the dramatic arts. Modeled on Walter Benjamin's ""Aufklarung fur Kinder"" radio talks, this series aims to awaken its young audience to pressing philosophical concerns. Each talk in God, Justice, Love, Beauty explores what is at stake in these topics as essential moments in human experience. (Indeed, the book argues that they are constitutive of human experience.) Following each, Nancy's audience is given a chance to engage with him in a process of philosophical questioning; the texts of these touching and probing exchanges are included in the volume. Despite the fact that these lectures were delivered to an audience of children, the intellectual level they achieve-while remaining easily comprehensible-is astounding. No attempt is made to simplify Nancy's positions or to resolve the complexities that arise in the course of the talks or the question periods that follow. The work of opening performed here is fully in keeping with the strategy of Nancy's philosophy as a whole. Thus, for readers unfamiliar with his work, God, Justice, Love, Beauty will function as an excellent introduction to Nancy's larger corpus. As varied as the individual talks are, they share the motif of incalculability or the immeasurable. Broadly speaking, one could say that the various ways in which Nancy approaches this motif exemplify his deconstructive approach to think of human existence. As well, those treatments exemplify his conviction that the task of thinking is to develop original ways of communicating the incalculable. God, Justice, Love, Beauty is thus a skillful reminder that philosophy is important to all of us. The book is also a model of intellectual generosity and openness. Seamlessly moving from Schwarzenegger to Plato, from Kant, Roland Barthes, and Caravaggio to Caillou, Harry Potter, and the pages of Gala magazine, Nancy's wide-ranging references bear witness to his commitment to think of ""culture"" in its broadest sense.

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Reviews

an important and timely contribution to opening a scholarly engagement with Jean-Luc Nancy's groundbreaking work on the deconstruction of Christianity...-David Pettigrew ...[The reader] will learn much about how a great thinker tries, without any technical jargon or presupposed set of common references, to approach subjects as significant and challenging as the nature of justice, love, and beauty.-Michael Naas In four lucid and accessible lectures, originally delivered before an audience of children, and followed by questions and answers, Jean-Luc Nancy explores the enduring philosophical questions of God, justice, love and beauty. In this remarkable encounter between generations, Nancy seeks to reengage thinking at the moment of its awakening, never sacrificing rigor for the clarity of exposition. A beautiful and moving text. -Francois Raffoul, Louisiana State University With patience and zest, Jean-Luc Nancy takes his young audiences through the weightiest of topics, pursuing what he calls the 'awakening' of thinking across a series of discussions distinguished as much by their exuberance as their precision. Fresh, tough-minded, and compelling, these talks celebrate the profound importance of such exacting reflection to the life we have to live every day, and put us engrossingly in touch with the unfolding thinking of this most vital of philosophers. -Martin Crowley, Queen's College Jean-Luc Nancy for kids? This series of lectures for children between six and twelve takes us back to basics like few philosophical texts. A distant relative of Descartes' Discourse on Method, this book does not 'talk down' to youngsters but tries to address fundamental questions in language presupposing very little. Nancy succeeds implausibly well and this lucid translation of his novel project can be revelatory for kids of all ages. -Ian Balfour, York University

<br>.an important and timely contribution to opening a scholarly engagement with Jean-Luc Nancy's groundbreaking work on the deconstruction of Christianity...-David Pettigrew<p><br>. . .[The reader] will learn much about how a great thinker tries, without any technical jargon or presupposed set of common references, to approach subjects as significant and challenging as the nature of justice, love, and beauty.-Michael Naas<p><br> In four lucid and accessible lectures, originally delivered before an audience of children, and followed by questions and answers, Jean-Luc Nancy explores the enduring philosophical questions of God, justice, love and beauty. In this remarkable encounter between generations, Nancy seeks to reengage thinking at the moment of its awakening, never sacrificing rigor for the clarity of exposition. A beautiful and moving text. -Fran ois Raffoul, Louisiana State University <br><p><br> With patience and zest, Jean-Luc Nancy takes his young audiences through the weight

<br>.an important and timely contribution to opening a scholarly engagement with Jean-Luc Nancy's groundbreaking work on the deconstruction of Christianity...-David Pettigrew<p><br>. . .[The reader] will learn much about how a great thinker tries, without any technical jargon or presupposed set of common references, to approach subjects as significant and challenging as the nature of justice, love, and beauty.-Michael Naas<p><br> In four lucid and accessible lectures, originally delivered before an audience of children, and followed by questions and answers, Jean-Luc Nancy explores the enduring philosophical questions of God, justice, love and beauty. In this remarkable encounter between generations, Nancy seeks to reengage thinking at the moment of its awakening, never sacrificing rigor for the clarity of exposition. A beautiful and moving text. -Fran?ois Raffoul, Louisiana State University <br><p><br> With patience and zest, Jean-Luc Nancy takes his young audiences through the weight

Author Information

Jean-Luc Nancy (1940–2021) was Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Université de Strasbourg and one of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century’s foremost thinkers of politics, art, and the body. His wide-ranging thought runs through many books, including Being Singular Plural, The Ground of the Image, Corpus, The Disavowed Community, and Sexistence. His book The Intruder was adapted into an acclaimed film by Claire Denis. Sarah Clift is Assistant Professor of Contemporary Studies at the University of King's College, Halifax.

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