ABSTRACT

The political demand made of Jacques Derrida by a variety of commentators is the demand for the concept 'politics' to be placed in the very transcendental position it is self-righteously supposed to reduce and explain, but to which it remains blind, and this, in conjunction with a similar political analysis of the role of history, enables convincing refutations to be made of objections to Derrida from authors such as Fredric Jameson, Frank Lentricchia or Terry Eagleton. Derrida's thinking, it now seems reasonably clear, follows a rhythm which shuttles between what would be traditionally distinguished as transcendental and empirical planes, asserting the priority of neither and the subordination of both to a wider movement neither is in a position to understand. Although none of Derrida's texts most obviously devoted to exploring this configuration explicitly addresses the attempt at a political reduction of philosophy, it seems clear that similar objections obtain.