Vol. 9 · No. 2 · 2003

Matthew C. Ally

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Abstract

Are these papers about intellectuals? Or are they about racism and colonialism? Are they about Sartre or Fanon or Derrida? "Risks of Engagement" is the title of the panel for which these papers were originally presented. We should think about that. Bruce Baugh quotes Simon Critchley: "Derrida can give no account, in terms of his own philosophical positions, of why he made just the 'gamble' he did." No he cannot, not in terms of his own philosophical positions, nor in terms of anyone else's. And neither can Sartre, I suspect, at least not to our complete satisfaction-and we know how hard he tried to. But is not that finally what makes it a gamble, this inability finally to account philosophically for political conduct? Is not that the risk of engagement? As I understand it, these three papers are about all of the things just mentioned, under the rubric of stochastics, if you will. These papers are about intellectuals, and race, and colonialism, and Sartre, and Fanon, and Derrida, with constant, if generally tacit reference to risk. But these papers are also about us, are they not? What do we do at academic conferences? What do we do in the academy? What do we do in our think tanks and institutes and learned societies and wherever else we do what we do? What are the chances we take as teachers, as scholars, as writers? In short, what are the risks we take as intellectuals?