TEHRAN – English philosopher Simon Critchley’s 2004 book “Very Little… Almost Nothing: Death, Philosophy, Literature” has been published in Persian.

Leila Kuchakmanesh has translated the book published by Ney.

The “death of man”, the “end of history” and even philosophy are strong and troubling currents running through contemporary debates. 

Yet since Nietzsche’s heralding of the “death of god”, philosophy has been unable to explain the question of finitude.

“Very Little… Almost Nothing” goes to the heart of this problem through an exploration of Blanchot’s theory of literature, Stanley Cavell’s interpretations of romanticism and the importance of death in the work of Samuel Beckett. 

Critchley links these themes to the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas to present a powerful new picture of how we must approach the importance of death in philosophy.

A compelling reading of the convergence of literature and philosophy, “Very Little… Almost Nothing” opens up new ways of understanding finitude, modernity and the nature of the imagination.

Critchley is currently teaching at The New School. He works in continental philosophy. He argues that philosophy commences in disappointment, either religious or political. 

These two axes may be said largely to inform his published work: religious disappointment raises the question of meaning and has to, as he sees it, deal with the problem of nihilism; political disappointment provokes the question of justice and raises the need for coherent ethics.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian translation of Simon Critchley’s book “Very Little… Almost Nothing”

MMS/YAW