Deconstruction provides, I will argue, a consistent theory of the necessary conditions for the organisation of any identity or being. Ravaisson's theory of habit, as articulated in Of Habit, will provide a useful foil for demonstrating the central conceptual distinctions necessary for thinking a philosophically rigorous theory of deconstruction. Comparing Jacques Derrida and Felix Ravaisson is invaluable as it allow us grasp a number of important concepts for understanding deconstruction's contribution to the question of life. Investigating the question of habit, structure, time, repetition and change in Ravaisson, allows us to see the extent to which these are utilised and transgressed in Derrida. What is interesting is not least the extent to which it allows us to explicate the degree Vitalism or spiritualism may be present in Derrida's thought. This is important as most contemporary debates on the question of life and matter, as well as the biopolitical tends to be primarily based in the Bergsonian-Deleuzian, as well a Foucauldian constellation. Derrida I claim offers many original insights to understanding the limits and possibilities of understanding the question of life, one that emerges from the ground up, in the relation between organisms, structures and identities. The importance of staging a confrontation between Derrida and Ravaisson is to assert that Ravaisson's vitalistic monism needs to be rigorously enhanced, with a thinking of life that requires an originary relation to death, time, technicity and alterity. My claim is that to think the life of any entity for deconstruction implies a gathering together of life in singularity and localization, and at one and the same time an exposure to alterity. In the last analysis, an importance consequence of my argument is that a deconstructive Vitalism is impossible from the start, needing the corrective of deconstruction to be logically feasible.
Section 1: Derrida, Ravaisson and the Habit of LifeHow does Derrida respond to the question of life? Spiritualism and Vitalism are valuable concepts for helping position his work in response to some recent trends in contemporary European Philosophy. The 'philosophies of life' from the beginning of the century have recently gained purchase over current intellectual configurations. This is evident in work revitalizing Henri Bergson, in the proliferation of Deleuze scholarship, in the vitalist politics of Michel Hardt and Tony Negri, and in Michel Foucault's reflections on bio-power. Thematically, this intellectual constellation revolves around Spinozistic, Bergsonian and Nietzschean reflections on scientific spiritualisms. The 'philosophies of life' are defined by the affirmative, the inventive