Giustino De Michele holds a PhD in Philosophy. After devoting his doctoral dissertation to the problem of animality in the thought of deconstruction, he currently explores the articulation of deconstruction, economy, and economics.
Host University: Aix Marseille University, France
Host research group or department: Institute of History of Philosophy - IHP
Co-host University: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany
Secondment institution: Brown University, Cogut Institute for Humanities (link)
Advisor: Prof. Joanny Moulin
Co-advisor: Prof. Dorothee Kimmich
Secondment mentor: Prof. Peter Szendy
My research
DEED - Deconstruction of Economy, Economics and Deconstruction
DEED aims to formalise, develop, and apply to contemporary issues the economic conceptuality that characterises the philosophy
of deconstruction. The reference to the terminology of economy is a massive and programmatic trait of deconstruction, notably
of Jacques Derrida’s thought. Its very trademark notion, “différance”, is defined as “an economic concept”. Deconstruction
is an attempt to describe a structure of reality based on the postulate of non-conservation of every principle (energy, value, life,
meaning). It therefore entails a radical criticism of any law (nomos) of propriety and proximity (oikos). Economic metaphors and
notions determine the deconstructive theorisation of perception, signification, epistemology, of ethics and politics, and of the
very structure of experience, of the elementary constitution of the living.
Yet, deconstruction never addressed economics: the actual phenomena of economy, the texts of economists, or any documents
punctuating economic history. This is an unexplored domain, by Derrida as well as by his readers.
DEED intends to pursue this task, by recognising the structure and the genealogy of the economic layer of deconstruction, in
view of elaborating a deconstructive theory of money, based on a critical consideration of the economic theories potentially
compatible with it.
This application of deconstruction will permit a critique of the anthropological and epistemological axioms of classical and neoclassical
capitalism, but also of its contestations based on any supposedly authentic value (be it matter, labour, blood or nation).
Furthermore, it permits an original theorisation of production and reproduction, of work and exchange, of finance and of hegemony.
Such objectives are particularly urgent in the current European and global scenario. DEED will supply original conceptual
tools and tackle an unexplored field, with the long term ambition to create an interdisciplinary and intersectoral network.
Date started – Date End
08.12.2023 - 07.12.2025
