Supposed God is There:
Derrida between Alterity and Subjectivity
marius timmann mjaalandL’horizon de la vérité ou du propre de l’homme
n’est certes pas une limite très déterminable.
Mais celui de l’université et des Humanités
non plus.
Jacques DerridaIf a thinker is deeply concerned with not speaking about something,
this is most likely one of his deepest concerns. This is all more the case
when it comes to ultimate conditions. Ultimate conditions are always
difficult to define, since they are conditions of discourse, thoughts, and
rationality under discussion. It is neither merely coincidental which
name is given to an ultimate condition, nor entirely decisive. Different
names could be given, and in fact have been, such as the One, the
Origin, the Logos, Nature, First Cause, Self, Freedom, Spirit, Being,
and Difference. I will give it another name, which is equally old,
equally ultimate, but nevertheless appears under new philosophical
conditions: the Name of God.
A discourse on ultimates is a discourse on time and place. If an
ultimate is not one particular thing among others — it never was — then
two questions immediately appear: how may it be recognized and
defined, and where is it localized? The latter is the question of topology,
the former epistemology. And, finally, there is ontology: Is there such
an ultimate? What would “Being” imply with reference to an ultimate
if it is not a particular? Is it Being itself? Could it be? Is not, rather,
the question of Being again put into play by another ultimate?