Fugitive Philosophy

Abstract:

The central inquiry of this article concerns the ethical orientation within post-structuralism, specifically questioning its potential affinity with deontology. While the “philosophers of difference” offer divergent perspectives on the doctrine of judgment, Jacques Derrida folds it within Deconstruction as a nomo-aporetic transcendental horizon. To understand this operation and its potential ethical significance, I suggest Jean-François Lyotard offers the best counter-model with which to compare against Derrida’s. Amongst their direct and indirect exchanges with each other is a dialogue concerning the law and its fundamental ground. Through their respective readings of Kafka – Derrida’s reading of “Before the Law” and Lyotard’s reading of “In the Penal Colony” – both attempt to delineate how the specific nature of the ground of the law determines the way in which an individual becomes subject to the law. Despite the enigmatic nature of their discourses, their comparison reveals converging and diverging trajectories in their ethical reflections as they push toward thinking the limits of lawfulness. Through such a comparative study of their texts, this exploration aims to unveil the shared fugitive vector of their ethical contemplations within the post-structuralist framework.

Keywords:

• law
• judgment
• deontology
• post-structuralism

disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Daniel W. Smith, for his part, situates Derrida and Deleuze as thinkers of transcendence and immanence, respectively. See Smith 271–86.

2 For a more in-depth explanation of the exhibition and Lyotard’s role, see Hui and Broeckmann 9–15.

3 While he doesn’t mention Levinas specifically, Derrida’s description of the non-place of the law of laws closely resembles the place of the Il y a in Levinas’s Existence and Existants: “The cosmos breaks up and chaos gapes open – the abyss, the absence of place, the there is [il y a]” (71).

4 This reading of Lyotard’s “Prescription” largely follows my reading of the essay found in my article “Toward an Aesthetic Obligation: The Imperative of Aesthetics in the Work of Jean-François Lyotard” in Pli, vol. 34, 2002, which takes a more comprehensive view of the relation of aesthetics and ethics in Lyotard’s work.