Forms in the Abyss

The relationship between the existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre and the post-structuralist Jacques Derrida has never been fully examined until now. In "Forms in the Abyss", Steve Martinot finds, between these two important philosophical thinkers of the twentieth century, 'a common uncommonality' by which he sees them confront each other as 'kindred souls', despite their vast differences. Martinot argues that while Sartre's writing sets out a significant set of critical ethical precepts for living in the world, and Derrida's critique of language in turn throws into question the process of arriving at an ethics (though constituting at the same time an ethics of writing), a bridge between these two thinkers can be constructed. He demonstrates that one can use the critical tools provided by Derrida, and the forms of discourse and reasoning developed by Sartre, to set the two in dialogue with each other. In the process, Martinot develops a theory of dialog that incorporates both ethics and form. Martinot contributes a new way of thinking about critical and social theory and even more importantly, adds a new ethical and political imperative to post-modern thought that many critics have often found missing in the works of thinkers such as Derrida. "Forms in the Abyss" promises to be a significant contribution to our critical understanding of western thought.