ABSTRACT
The collaborations between Lacoue-Labarthe and Nancy Fraser were both oriented towards timely developments in contemporary thought and configured around the untimely. Many have emphasized that the challenge presented by Derrida's thinking lies in its mobility: his insistence on deferrals, slippages, and uncertainties mean that attempts to locate a centre or essence to his thinking are bound to fail. Lacoue-Labarthe for instance taught seminars on The Birth of Tragedy, and published a translation of the work in 1977. The contemporary situation which it seemed a pressing task to discuss in this way was twofold: first, the end or death of mankind given the post-humanist turn in French thought; and secondly mankind seen otherwise than in relation to its philosophical end or goal. With the premises for debate being set up in these terms by texts preceding and introducing the Cerisy conference, the readers can now see in more detail how the arguments themselves develop.
