III
Plato, Austin, Nietzsche, Freud
n the sixties Derrida became aware of the futility of play-
ing the skeptic, as he had done in his early critique of
Husserl. Instead of restricting his role to deflating meta-
physics, which, as he saw it, assumed a universe governed
by the commanding self-consciousness of a thinking subject
(Derrida’s charge against Husserl), Derrida turned to Jewish
tradition and, at different moments, to Nietzsche in order to
stake a far wider claim for his philosophy. He wanted to unveil
a new world—though this world’s contours remained unclear.
He assumed a prophetic tone in his treatment of Lévinas and
Jabès, suggesting that an ethical demand connected to Judaism
was somehow implicit in the deconstructive project.
In the seventies Derrida proved unable to sustain his
prophetic emphasis. The youth culture had failed to accom-
plish a revolutionary transformation of society; Derrida’s new,
muted tone may be a response to this larger defeat. In his dis-
cussions of Plato, Freud, and Austin, which I will consider in
this chapter, Derrida’s depictions of writing are far less apoca-
lyptic than they were in the late sixties. Writing becomes a sign