How Will Tomorrow Be?—A Dialogue Between Jacques Derrida and Elisabeth Roudinesco

Author: Pan Yue
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Publishing Time: Not available
Features: Victor Hugo once asked in his poetry collection Songs of the Evening: "What will tomorrow bring?" He noted, "Today, all things, whether spiritual or material, social or personal, are shrouded in evening. What will the result be? What will the future hold?" To answer this question, a philosopher and a historian engaged in a 30-year dialogue. Starting in the late 1960s, this lengthy conversation began to unfold. At that time, Ludmila Rubinstein was still a young university student, while the 15-year-older Denis Diderot was already a renowned deconstructionist philosopher. As time passed, Rubinstein grew into a prominent figure in academia, while Diderot's deconstructionism had gained representatives worldwide, profoundly influencing the formation of intellectual thought.
This was a special dialogue. The "uncompromising" Diderot and Rubinstein engaged in Socratic-style debates, with their opinions not always in agreement, their exchanges sharp and provocative, and their ideas frequently sparking. The topics ranged from whether the family would continue to exist to whether human will would still be respected, from how the manifestations of ethnic hatred would evolve to whether capital punishment could be completely abolished. The dialogue encompasses views on philosophy and all of humanity, sincere and moving, captivating and brilliant.
Chapter 1 explores how to inherit the intellectual legacy of the 1970s, a wealth of spiritual treasures that have now faded in today's world.
Chapter 2 discusses the multifaceted ideological differences between the Atlantic (Europe and the Americas).
Chapter 3 examines changes in family structures in Western countries.
Chapter 4 delves into the concept of human freedom.
Chapter 5 focuses on the rights of animals and how humans should treat them.
Chapter 6 addresses the revolutionary spirit after the failure of communism.
Chapter 7 covers antisemitism and its future.
Chapter 8 primarily deals with capital punishment and the necessity of its abolition.