Resumo de The Gift Of Death

Who would ever expect a major figure of postmodern and poststructuralist thought to write a book about ethics, religion, God and responsibility? Well, here it is and it definitely shatters all conventional and superficial assumptions one may have had concerning Derrida and his writings showing them to be ungrounded prejudices. In The Gift of Death, published in 1995, Derrida does not renounce his earlier statements and strategies but applies them in a highly original manner to reflection on the meaning of responsibility and ethics. The book is extremely important as it shows that what is called deconstruction in not simply certain perversely original manner of approaching philosophical or literary texts. There is much more to deconstruction tham one might initially think. Derrida himself stressed from the very beginning in all of his texts that deconstruction is something that happens, something that takes place, and, significantly, not only in texts but also in politics, human relations, everyday life. By reading Patocka's Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History, Heidegger's Being and Time and Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling (one of the most fascinating parts of the book), Derrida attempts to show the paradox inevitably involved in the notion of human responsibility, a crucial notion in establishing any form of ethical discourse. If anyone justifies his actions in ethical terms than one must necessarily refer to universal principles as expressed in language. Anyone called to responsibility is in fact called to explain himself or herself, to justify his actions or decisions. But once you start speaking, Derrida says, you precisely avoid individual responsibility by calling to justification general principles, you hide behind those principles and it is them that bear actual responsibility. Is then authentic individual responsibility possible at all? The answer is yes: it happens when one cannot explain his or her actions to others by means of language, when one relates to the Other in an unconditional and unique way transgressing the sphere of universal ethics. Interestingly, Derrida claims that such transgressions and relations form the core of our everyday life: by choosing (and the moment of decision is crucial) to relate to some Other in individual and unconditional terms, I must give up any other relations that would be perhaps more significant in universal ethical terms. I must do that to become an individual who is genuinely and individually responsible. This is how Derrida reads Kierkegaard's reading of the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac. The Gift of Death is one of those rare books that constantly provoke to thinking and rethinking of those aspects of our life which we perhaps too readily take for granted. This is certainly one of the most precious gifts that Derrida's writings bring along with them.

Resumos Relacionados