Proposing a radical reconceptualization of deconstruction and nothingness

The first of two volumes exploring Jacques Derrida's prefiguration of speculative realism, The Nothing and Nothingness examines the transcendental naturalism of Ray Brassier and Iain Hamilton Grant and the speculative materialism of Quentin Meillassoux. Philippe Lynes proposes nothing less than a radical reconceptualization of deconstruction as a call to bear witness to nothingness: let the earth be the earth, let nature be nature, and leave them to their reality, secrecy, and withdrawal without us.

Dearth: Deconstruction After Speculative Realism argues that Derrida's seminars on Martin Heidegger and Maurice Blanchot, La Chose (The Thing), anticipated many of the philosophical, literary, and aesthetic questions animating speculative realism today: an anti-anthropocentric critique of Kantian correlationism an overcoming of the apocalyptic nihilism of extinction through a deeper, affirmative habituation to nothingness and poignant reflections on the literary and poetic aspects of living and dying in impossible worlds. His is an anti-correlationist plea that resounds now more urgently than ever.

" Lynes is one of the most important new voices in Derrida studies. In this monumental new work, he takes on the challenge of bringing deconstruction into sustained dialogue with speculative realism and does so with impressive dexterity and erudition." - Graham Harman, Southern California Institute of Architecture, Los Angeles

"Dearth offers a wealth of scholarship, wisdom, and enlivening thought that brings deconstruction's legacies and aftermaths into the twenty-first century. Marrying archival research with rigorous analysis, Dearth is an essential text in eco-deconstruction, environmental philosophy, and the history of ideas. Essential reading for anyone curious or troubled about the relationship between philosophy and the fate of a damaged planet." - Claire Colebrook, Penn State University

Philippe Lynesis a researcher with the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Dundee, and a visiting scholar with the School of Modern Languages & Cultures at the University of Glasgow.