Jacques Derrida On Kierkegaardian 'Secrecy'
In his 1992 work 'The Gift of Death' ('Donner la mort'), Derrida examines the ethical/religious writings of Czech philosopher Jan Patočka (1907-1977) as well as Kierkegaard's 'Fear and Tembling' ... in Part Four - 'Tout autre est tout autre' ('Every other [one] is every [bit] other') there is detailed discussion of Abraham's secret calling by God to sacrifice his son Isaac ... for Kierkegaard this marks absolute 'subjectivity', the incommunicable existential truth of one's being ... Abraham becomes a 'knight of faith' acting solely upon his belief in God's calling, suspending ethical injunction ... in terms of this radical interiority - a subjectivity that actually divests one of usual moral 'selfhood', Derrida writes (the clip's voiceover):
"How can another see into me, into my most secret self, without my being able to see in there myself and without my being able to see him in me? And if my secret self, that which can be revealed only to the other, to the wholly other, to God if you wish, is a secret that I will never reflect on, that I will never know or experience or possess as my own, then what sense is there in saying that it is "my" secret, or in saying more generally that a secret *belongs*, that it is proper to or belongs to some "one," or to some *other* who remains some*one*? It is perhaps there that we find the secret of secrecy, namely, that it is not a matter of knowing and that it is there for no-one. A secret doesn't belong, it can never be said to be at home or in its place.... The question of the self: "who am I?" not in the sense of "who am I" but "who is this 'I' that can say "who"? What is the "I," and what becomes of the responsibility once the identity of the "I" trembles in secret?" ('Gift of Death,' p. 92)
Channel: People & Blogs
Uploaded: November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am
Author: hiperf289
Length: 01:38
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Tags: Abr Deconstruction Fear+and+Trembling French Gift+of+Death Jacques+Derrida Kierkegaard Patočka Philosophy
Video Comments
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hiperf289 (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
"... in case the will of heaven had not been announced to him by an augur, in case it had come to his knowledge in an entirely private way, in case it had put itself into an entirely private relationship with him, then we encounter the paradox... then he could not speak however much he might wish to ... F&T, Problem III
hiperf289 (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
"Faith itself cannot be mediated into the universal, for it would thereby be destroyed. Faith is this paradox and the individual absolute cannot make himself intelligible to anybody."
F&T, Problem II
hiperf289 (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
Its not ir-rational (erring from the rational) - its non-rational in the sense that the usual rational categories of understanding (metaphysical and logical but also involving definition, lexicon, syntax, binary opposition, etc.) are inapplicable as the calling is beyond any such conventional notions ... have you actually read 'Fear and Trembling' by any chance?
keithjarrett (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
'incommunicable' ie. the indescribable understanding. Hows that irrational. Your highly confused my friend.
hiperf289 (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
Because, per 'Fear and Trembling,' it calls only to you but does so in a manner that is wholly individual, incommunicable and non-sensical in any sort of usual rational way - yet, it *is* yours and yours alone (ala Abraham's calling) and you most certainly 'know' this... |
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