Raoul Moati received his PhD from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, where he taught for several years. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy of the University of Chicago. He is also a Member of the Chicago Center for Jewish Studies, a Member of The Emmanuel Levinas Center (Université Paris-Sorbonne), and an Associate Member of the Husserl Archives (Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris). Raoul Moati works and teaches principally in Phenomenology, Existentialism, Continental Philosophy, Philosophy of Language and Metaphysics. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Les Oeuvres complètes (Complete Works) of Emmanuel Levinas published by Grasset (Paris).
His work primarily deals with the philosophical conflict between Deconstruction and Ordinary Language Philosophy. His first book (Derrida/Searle, deconstruction et language ordinaire (Paris, PUF, 2009; New-York, Columbia University Press, 2014) focuses on Derrida's and Searle's controversy about Austin. A systematic work on Derrida and the Ordinary Language (Derrida et le langage ordinaire) has been published in 2014.
One of the most important aspects of Moati's work consists in the attempt to challenge the continental claim of the so-called "End of Metaphysics." For Moati this deconstructive claim is based on a disputable understanding of the concept of Metaphysics. Moati tries to problematize this question in his latest book, which consists in a very close reading of Levinas's masterpiece Totality and Infinity (Evénements Nocturnes, Essai sur Totalité et Infini). An English version of this book has been published by Fordham University Press (in the Perspectives in Continental Philosophy series). Recently, a colloquium about Moati's work has been organized by the University of Namur (Belgium).
Selected Publications
Books (French and English):
Derrida/Searle, déconstruction et langage ordinaire (Paris, PUF, Philosophies, 2009), 153 pp.
Zizek, Marxisme et psychanalyse, with Ronan de Calan (Paris, PUF, Philosophies, 2012), 153 pp.
Evénements Nocturnes, Essai sur Totalité et Infini, Préface de Jocelyn Benoist (Paris, Hermann, Le Bel Aujourd’hui, 2012), 380 pp.
Derrida/Searle, Deconstruction and Ordinary Language, foreword Jean-Michel Rabaté (New-York, Columbia University Press, 2014), 165 pp.
Derrida et le langage ordinaire (Paris, Hermann, Le Bel Aujourd’hui, 2014), 460 pp.
The Night of Being, A Guide to Levinas’s Totality and Infinity, New-York, Fordham University Press, 2016. 210p.
Edited Books:
Autour de S. Zizek, Psychanalyse, Marxisme, Idéalisme Allemand (Paris, PUF, Actuel Marx, 2010), 290 pp.
Du Bruit et du sensible: La pensée de J. Benoist, with D. Cohen-Levinas (Paris, Hermann, forthcoming, 2017)
Recent Articles:
"Deformalization and Phenomenology in Levinas’s Totality and Infinity," in D. de Santis, ed., Handbook to Phenomenology (Routledge, forthcoming, 2018)
"Non Being-Thrown," forthcoming in S. Hammerschlag, ed., Levinas, The Unpublished Work (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2017), 15 p.
List of Publications: DOC
Media
Raoul Moati, recorded lecture
Recent Courses
PHIL 23205 Introduction to Phenomenology
This course will be devoted to the exploration of one of the most important philosophical movements of the Twentieth Century: Phenomenology. Our exploration will take as guideline the following question that we will have to clarify and to answer during the quarter: is there a trans-phenomenality of being? We will see that Husserl and Heidegger's answer to that question is negative whereas Sartre's answer is positive. The orientation of the quarter will be defined by the attempt to defend Sartre's position concerning this philosophical issue and to raise then a second question entailed by our answer to the first: does the discovery of the trans-phenomenality of being imply to give up the phenomenological method coming from Husserl and Heidegger or to redefine it?
PHIL 24400 Heidegger's Being and Time Division I
We propose a cursive reading of the section I of the masterpiece of Heidegger Being and Time looking for the very connection, as our very leading question, between the idea of being in general and the discovery of the being of human being named by Heidegger - Dasein.
PHIL 50106 Sartre and Philosophy of Mind
It's been ten years that a growing interest for Phenomenology is manifest in the field of the contemporary philosophy of mind, especially amongst others phenomenologists, for Sartre. We will try to discuss most of the contemporary approaches of Sartre and try to understand what could be an actual and sustainable sartrean position today in the debates turning around the notion of self-consciousness.
For full list of Raoul Moati's courses back to the 2013-14 academic year, see our searchable course database.