Being as Relation in Luce Irigaray

Many scholars have struggled with Irigaray’s focus on sexuate difference, in particular with her claim that it is “ontological,” wondering if this implies a problematically naïve or essentialist account of sexuate difference. As a result, the ethical vision which Irigaray elaborates has not been taken up in a robust way in the fields of philosophy, feminism, or psychoanalysis.

By tracing the notion of relation throughout Irigaray’s work, this book identifies a rigorous philosophical continuity between the three self-identified “phases” in Irigaray’s thought (despite some critics’ concerns that there is a discontinuity between these phases) and clarifies the relational ontology that underlies Irigaray’s conceptualization of sexuate difference – one that always already implies an ethical project.



The text demonstrates that an understanding of Irigaray’s Heideggerian inheritance – especially prominent in her later texts – is essential to grasping the sense of the idea that sexuate difference is ontological – it concerns Being, rather than beings. This book further develops potential applications of this ontological notion of a “relational limit” for the fields of philosophy, feminism, and psychotherapy.

“In clear, crisp prose, Jones reads Irigaray as a thinker in dialogue, carefully attending to her engagements with Aristotle, Heidegger, and Lacan. The readings never fail to excite, and through them, she clearly explicates core dimensions of Irigaray's thought and performs what her analysis champions -- transformational, responsive dialogue. And along the way, she tackles fundamental questions of ontology, subjectivity, and ethical life. As a study of complex texts and issues, it is sophisticated and illuminating. As a contribution to ethical life, it is a gift.” (John Lysaker, William R. Kenan Professor of Philosophy, Emory University)

“Emma Jones deftly handles Irigaray’s past and recent texts, developing the notions of “relation” and “relational limit” in their precise formulation as a result of Irigaray’s employment of sexuate difference. A critical, original, and compelling philosophical intervention, Jones’ text makes clear that how we understand limit and relation cuts at, and is structured into, problems ranging from global political apathy and political tribalism to the everydayness of disempowered living. Jones powerfully asks what it means to speak to one another, to think within the particularity of our shared space, and to be-together, as if our shared future depended upon it -- because it does.” (Alfred Frankowski, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Southern Illinois University. Author of The Post-Racial Limits of Memorialization: Toward a Political Sense of Mourning and co-editor of Critical Perspectives on African Genocide: Memory, Silence, and Anti-Black Political Violence)

“This book opens new paths in Irigaray scholarship and transforms our understanding of Irigaray’s place in contemporary feminist thought. Emma Jones shows Irigaray’s distinctive contribution to lie in her articulation of a relational ontology in ways the framing of her work has often obscured. Via original readings of Irigaray’s recasting of Heidegger on language and Aristotle on place, Jones elaborates an account of sexuate differenceas relational limit and shows how this results in a thoroughgoing reconceptualization of subjectivity as a place of self-gathering bound by alterity. By shifting the emphasis from identity to relation, in ways that prefigure and intersect with key developments in recent feminist theory, Irigaray offers an ethics of sexuate difference that – on Jones’s approach – is resolutely inclusive of trans- and nonbinary folks. Emphasizing an attunement to the giving of being as relation, this insightful book is astutely attuned to the transformative potential of Irigaray’s work.” (Rachel Jones, Associate Professor of Philosophy, George Mason University. Author of Irigaray: Towards a Sexuate Philosophy)

Emma R. Jones is a psychotherapist in private practice in the San Francisco East Bay Area. She was educated at the New School; the University of Oregon, where she earned her PhD in philosophy; and the California Institute of Integral studies, where she earned her clinical degree. She is the author of several articles engaging the work of Luce Irigaray as well as phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and ancient Greek philosophy.