Mary-Jane Rubenstein STRANGE WONDER Ses @ THE CLOSURE OF METAPHYSICS AND THE OPENING OF AWESTRANGE WONDER INSURRECTIONS: CRITICAL STUDIES IN RELIGION, POLITICS, AND CULTUREINSURRECTIONS: CRITICAL STUDIES IN RELIGION, POLITICS, AND CULTURE Slavoj Zizek, Clayton Crockett, Creston Davis, Jeffrey W. Robbins, editors The intersection of religion, politics, and culture is one of the most discussed areas in theory today: It also has the deepest and most wide-ranging impact on the world. Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture will bring the tools of philosophy and critical theory to the political implications of the religious turn. The series will address a range of religious traditions and political viewpoints in the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world. Without advocating any specific religious or theological stance, the series aims nonetheless to be faithful to the radical emancipatory potential of religion After the Deuth of God JOHN D. CAPUTO AND GIANNI VATTIMO, EDITED BY JEFFREY W. ROBBINS Nietzsche and Levinus: “After the Death of « Certain God,” EDITED BY BETTINA BERGO AND JILL STAUFFER The Politics of Postseculur Religion: Mourning Seculur Futures, ANANDA ABEYSEKARA Religion and the Specter of the West: Sikhism, India, Postcoloniality, and the Politics of Translation ARVIND MANDAIRSTRANGE WONDER THE CLOSURE OF METAPHYSICS AND THE OPENING OF AWE Mary-Jane Rubenstein COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORKCOLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex Copyright © 2008 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rubenstein, Mary-Jane. Strange wonder: the closure of metaphysics and the opening of awe / Mary-Jane Rubenstein, pcm. — (Insurrections: critical studies in religion, politics, and culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-231-14632-6 (cloth: alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-51859-8 (e-book) 1. Wonder (Philosophy) >. Philosophy, I. Title. II. Series. B1os.W65R83_ 2008 19o—de22 2008032131 2 Casebound editions of Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper Printed in the United States of America 10987654321 References to Internet Web Sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for Web sites that may have expired or changed since the book was prepared.Horatio: O day and night, but this is wondrous strange: Hamlet: And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, ‘Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. —William Shakespeare, HumletFOR MY TEACHERS For my part I have already, thanks to you, given utterance to more than Thad in me. —Plato, TheuetetusCONTENTS Acknowledgments x1 Introduction: Wonder and the Births of Philosophy Socrates’ Small Difficulty 1 The Wound of Wonder 7 The Death and Resurrection of Thaumazein 12 The Thales Dilemma 19 . Repetition: Martin Heidegger 25 Metaphysics’ Small Difficulty 25 Wonder and the “First Beginning” 28 Wonder and the “Other Beginning” 33 ‘Thenetetus Redux: the Ghost of the Pseudés Doxa 40 Once Again to the Cave 47 Rethinking Thaumazein 56 . Openness: Emmanuel Levinas 61 Passivity and Responsibility 61 1x CONTENTS The Ethics of the Cave 64 Infinity and Astonishment 66 Opening Out: From Existent to Existence 71 Closing Down: From Existence to Existent 73 Locking Up: Totality and Infinity 77 ‘The Phantom of the Autrement 86 Awakening 92 » . Relation: Jean-Luc Nancy 99 ‘The Problem of Mitsein 99 Mitsein as Essential Inessentiality 107 ‘The Myth of Essentialism 111 Unworking 115 Interruption 119 Inyaquilya 121 Repetition 126 4. Decision: Jacques Derrida 133 Thaumazein, the Irresponsible, and the Undecidable 133 Hospitality 139 Undeeidability Revisited 145 Much Madness is Divinest Sense (or, Who Comes After the Decision?) 147 How to Avoid the Subject (or, “That's Not My Hedgehog!”) 154 Undecidability, Take Three: “Think Here of Kierkegaard” 161 Mysterium Tremendum 175 Postlude: Possibility 185 ‘The Opening of Closure 185 I n'y a ques spukt 190 Nearer Than Hands and Feet 193 Notes 197 Bibliography 235 Index 2stACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like here to acknowledge just some of the numerous people upon whom my research, thinking, and sanity have relied in the course of writing this book. Thanks are due first of all to my doctoral adviser, Wayne Proudfoot, whose careful critique and thoughtful suggestions throughout this process have been invaluable. I am also grateful to Elizabeth Castelli for her help with the Platonic material, her eye for the political landscape, her ear for metaphor, and her tireless encouragement. Mark C. Taylor first pointed me toward Jean-Luc Nancy in relation to this study, and I have appreciated his intellectual generosity and interpretation of modern philosophy ever since I worked with him as an undergraduate at Williams College. Much of the initial impetus to undertake this project emerged from a seminar co-taught by Avital Ronell and Jacques Derrida at New York Univer- sity, which I attended from 2001 to 2003. With her characteristic combination of grace and incisiveness, Professor Ronell has taught me to become a much more attentive reader, and I will forever remember Professor Derrida’s pains- taking, courageous, and, above all, caring approach to the task of thinking. I also thank my friend and colleague Elizabeth Loeb, who understood what I was trying to do with Derrida and wonder before I did.xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Perhaps not surprisingly, this topic has provoked a vast range of conver- sations with a vast range of colleagues, friends, and mentors. For thoughts that have haunted my writing to the extent that I would not know how to go about footnoting them, I thank Storm Swain, Randall Styers, Denys Turner, Celia Deutsch, Jack Hawley, Catherine Keller, Simon Oliver, John Milbank, Cate Williamson, Patti Welch, Claudio Carvalhaes, Raffaele Timarchi, Chloe Breyer, Ephraim Rubenstein, and Jenna Tiitsman. Jenna also read—more closely than it probably deserved—an early version of the introduction. Many thanks to Taylor Carman for his insight into the Heidegger material, Jeff Rider for his thoughtful reading of parts of the draft, Jodi Eichler-Levine for her help with the Greek material, Will Blomquist for the last-minute editing, and Wendy Lochner and Christine Mortlock at Columbia University Press. I am especially grateful to Susan Pensak for the extraordinary care she has taken in editing the manuscript. I also thank Thomas Ashley for the Keats, Michael Ashley for the solidarity, Elizabeth Salzer for taking my farthest-flung thoughts seriously, Van- essa Morris-Burke for keeping me on my feet, my students for keeping me on my toes, and my colleagues in the Religion Department at Wesleyan University for their careful engagement of this work. My research has been generously supported by the Jacob K. Javits Founda- tion; the Episcopal Church Foundation; the Center for Comparative Litera- ture and Society at Columbia University; and the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, the Very Reverend James A. Kowalski, dean. The project has also relied heavily upon the unflagging encouragement—not to mention the paper products and leftovers—of all my parents: Veronica and Thomas War- ren, Joshua and Jennifer Rubenstein, and Marta Johnson. My siblings do their best to keep me honest and amazed: Isaac, Marlena, Rebecca, and certainly Kenan, without whom I doubt I would be able to think through anything at all. And literally boundless thanks are due to Helen Ashley, whose patience, creativity, and compassion are themselves nothing short of miraculous. Lastly, I thank H. Ganse Little Jr., Bill Darrow, and Catherine Pickstock, for getting so much of this going in the first place.STRANGE WONDERTo say philosophy originates in wonder means philosophy is wondrous in its es- sence and becomes more wondrous the more it becomes what it really is. —Martin Heidegger Do not all charms fly at the mere touch of cold philosophy? —John Keats INTRODUCTION: Wonder and the Births of Philosophy Socrates’ Small Difficulty One day in Athens, sensing he is nearing the end of his life, Socrates asks Theodorus whether there are any extraordinary students at the gym- nasium. The wise old geometer names one Theaetetus, extolling the boy's “amazing” nature and his “astonishing” mind, not to mention his remarkable resemblance to Socrates." Just then, the object of their fascination appears on the horizon. As he approaches, Socrates decides to “examine” Theaetetus, telling the wide-eyed, snub-nosed boy, “I want to see for myself what kind of face I have” (144d). The conversation that ensues between the Master and the Wunderkind is nothing short of a reflection upon the nature—and future—of philosophy itself. “I have a small difficulty,” Socrates tells his mirror image, “which I think ought to be investigated” (145d). Socrates confesses that while he continues to gain knowledge of geometry and astronomy and music, he “can't get a proper grasp of what on earth knowledge really is” (145; emphasis added). Presumably, he ventures, one seeks knowledge in order to gain wisdom, but, in this very pursuit, knowledge and wisdom themselves remain a mystery. So the “small difficulty” haunting this dialogue is quite simply that Socrates does not know what it is to know; the father of Western philosophy does not know what he loves when he loves sophia.? If Socrates cannot get a grip on knowledge, however, he also cannot leave