Giovanna Borradori is Professor of Philosophy and Media Studies at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

. Borradori is a specialist in Social and political theory,

Aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

, and the philosophy of

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

. A crucial focus of her work is fostering new avenues of communication between rival philosophical lineages, including the analytical and Continental traditions,

liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...

and

communitarianism Communitarianism is a philosophy that emphasizes the connection between the individual and the community. Its overriding philosophy is based upon the belief that a person's social identity and personality are largely molded by community relati ...

, as well as

deconstruction The term deconstruction refers to approaches to understanding the relationship between text and meaning. It was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who defined it as a turn away from Platonism's ideas of "true" forms and essences w ...

and

Critical Theory A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...

Writings

In her anthology, ''Recoding Metaphysics: The New Italian Philosophy,'' Borradori presented late 20th-century Italian thinkers, such as Gianni Vattimo,

Massimo Cacciari Massimo Cacciari (; born 5 June 1944) is an Italian philosopher, politician and public intellectual. Biography Born in Venice, Cacciari graduated in philosophy from the University of Padua (1967), where he also received his doctorate, writing a ...

, Mario Perniola, and Emanuele Severino, to the American audience. In ''The American Philosopher: Conversations with Quine, Davidson, Putnam, Nozick, Danto, Rorty, Cavell, MacIntyre, Kuhn,'' she pressed her interlocutors to reflect on their relation to history, the weight of tradition in philosophy, and their encounters with pragmatism and

logical positivism Logical positivism, later called logical empiricism, and both of which together are also known as neopositivism, is a movement in Western philosophy whose central thesis was the verification principle (also known as the verifiability criterion o ...

. ''The American Philosopher'' was one of the first critical examinations of the historical and institutional context in which contemporary American philosophy operates. After the

terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

, Borradori became a strong voice in the study of terrorism from a philosophical perspective. Her latest book, ''Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues with

Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas (, ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere. Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas's wor ...

and

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...

,'' seeks to evaluate the full philosophical and political significance of 9/11 in conversation with two important European thinkers. Overcoming their historical enmity, Habermas and Derrida appear in her book side by side for the first time in their lives. Borradori's book opened the way for their critical collaboration on the public sphere, which continued with a declaration of support for the anti-war demonstrations of February 15, 2003. Entitled, "February 15, or, What Binds Europeans Together: Plea for a Common Foreign Policy, Beginning in Core Europe," their joint statement appeared simultaneously in major European newspapers and was later published in " Old Europe, New Europe, Core Europe" (Verso, 2005). In ''Philosophy in a Time of Terror'', Borradori asserts that militant religious

fundamentalists Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that is characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishing ...

explicitly reject

secularization In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...

and

modernity Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norm (social), norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the " ...

, which constitute the conceptual foundations of the

Enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...

. This leads Borradori to claim that an appropriate response to 9/11 must reach "as far as a critical reassessment of the validity of the

project" (10). Habermas and Derrida discuss their different interpretations of Kant's legacy, both agreeing, however, with the crux of his political philosophy: the legitimacy of international legal and political institutions as a condition for global justice.

Bibliography

* ''Il Pensiero Post-Filosofico.'' Milan: Jaca Books, 1988 * ''Recoding Metaphysics: The New Italian Philosophy,'' edited by. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1988 * ''The American Philosopher: Conversations with Quine, Davidson, Putnam, Nozick, Danto, Rorty, Cavell, MacIntyre, Kuhn.'' Chicago, IL: University of Chicago, 1994 * ''Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues with Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida.'' Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2003

External links

''9/11 and Global Terrorism'' and ''Fundamentalism and Terror''
- Excerpts from ''Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues with Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Borradori, Giovanna Italian people of Swiss descent Vassar College faculty Italian emigrants to the United States 20th-century Italian philosophers Italian women philosophers Writers from Milan Living people Continental philosophers 21st-century Italian philosophers Critical theorists Year of birth missing (living people)