How to Do Philosophy with Words

Nowadays philosophy is characterized by such heterogeneous intellectual practices that its very unity and coherence seem endangered. What is especially disconcerting is that most authors manage to largely ignore the very existence of methodological positions radically different from their own. Fortunately, there have been exceptions, and the present volume focuses on one of them: the failed debate that took place between John Searle and Jacques Derrida.
This book thoroughly analyses that exchange, contextualizing it within the respective philosophical traditions of the two thinkers, with the general aim of turning their dispute into what it was not: a respectful, sensible and fruitful controversy. This episode is thus taken as an opportunity to reflect on the peculiar nature of philosophy as an intellectual practice, and to discuss some of its main themes: language as an instrument for communication, the intentionality of consciousness, and difference as a constitutive element of every text.

Simon Glendinning, London School of Economics:
Exploring a small dossier of texts on the legacy and significance of J.L. Austin's philosophy of language, Jesús Navarro navigates one of the most heated and sometimes over-heated debates in recent philosophical literature. Skilfully pursuing discussions which engage with both the fine details of philosophical claims and arguments and the ramifying meta-philosophical implications about what philosophical claims and arguments can and should look like in the first place, Navarro guides the reader through the extraordinary debate between Jacques Derrida and John Searle, a debate that both represents and ultimately challenges preconceived ideas about the analytic/continental division within European philosophy.