Jean-Luc Nancy: Materialism, globalization and phenomenological ontology

Abstract

In a collection of articles under the title La création du monde ou la mondialisation (2002), Nancy seeks to portray a mondialisation, or “worldlization”, that does not consist of an expanded reproduction of capital and that is not a local phenomenon, but rat her a global one. For that purpose, he affi rms that the difference between globalization and “worldlization” lies in the emergence of an almost metaphysical notion of creation. Nancy distinguishes between the world’s globalization and the world’s move towards “worldlization”. “Worldlization” requires that something new is produced within the world, a break with the simple reproduction of what already exists, yet a break that does not involve an external intervention. This new but not external element is part of the radical materialism that Nancy shares with Marx and Sartre. Nevertheless, Nancy manifests a degree of vacillation and retreats from his own proposal, whose possibilities can be realized by reworking Sartre’s phenomenological ontology on the basis of the globalization vs. “worldlization” problem raised by Nancy himself.

Key words: Jean-Luc Nancy, globalization, “worldilization”, Sartre, deconstruction.