Negative Certainties

Jean-Luc Marion, member of the Académie française, is emeritus professor of philosophy at the Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV). He is the Andrew Thomas Greeley and Grace McNichols Greeley Professor of Catholic Studies, professor of the philosophy of religions and theology, and professor in the Committee on Social Thought and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Chicago. He also holds the Dominique Dubarle chair at the Institut Catholique of Paris. He is the author of many books, including The Erotic Phenomenon and God without Being, both also published by the University of Chicago Press. Stephen E. Lewis is professor and chair of the English Department at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. He has translated several works by Jean-Luc Marion.

• ForewordTranslator’s AcknowledgmentsIntroduction§ 1 Attempt to Introduce the Concept of Negative Certainties into PhilosophyI The Undefinable, or the Face of Man§ 2 “What Is Man?”§ 3 “Ipse mihi magna quaestio”§ 4 What It Costs to Know (Oneself)§ 5 Proscription§ 6 The Fund of Incomprehensibility§ 7 The Indefinite and the UnstableII The Impossible, or What Is Proper to God§ 8 The Impossible Phenomenon§ 9 The Irreducible§ 10 Possibility without Conditions§ 11 The (Im)possible: From Contradiction to Event§ 12 The (Im)possible from My Point of View§ 13 The (Im)possible from God’s Point of ViewIII The Unconditioned, or the Strength of the Gift§ 14 The Contradictions of the Gift§ 15 The Terms of Exchange§ 16 Reducing the Gift to Givenness§ 17 Without the Principle of Identity§ 18 Without the Principle of Sufficient ReasonIV The Unconditioned and the Variations of the Gift§ 19 Sacrifice According to the Terms of Exchange§ 20 Regiving, Beginning from the Recipient§ 21 The Confirmation of Abraham§ 22 Forgiveness According to the Terms of Exchange§ 23 Regiving, Beginning from the Giver§ 24 The Return of the Prodigal SonV The Unforeseeable, or the Event§ 25 What the Object Excludes§ 26 The Condition of the Object§ 27 Concerning the Distinction of Phenomena into Objects and Events§ 28 Without Cause§ 29 The Original Unknown§ 30 The Double InterpretationConclusion§ 31 In Praise of the ParadoxBibliographical NoteNotesIndex

"Marion argues that being clear about what one cannot know is philosophically important, because such acknowledgement makes one realize that even some properly formed questions will remain unanswerable.”