ABSTRACT

The Conclusion summarizes the psychoanalytic explanation of why the principle of reason is psychologically compelling and imbued with ethical force, and why, therefore, the vigilant interrogation of grounds that characterizes deconstructive practices of reading is ethical in a qualified sense. In revealing the violence that inheres in morality, politics and the law, deconstructive readings manifest a radical fidelity to the very principle of reason that has informed responsibility all along. Although the responsibility to reason is ultimately rooted in desire rather than logic, it is nonetheless a form of responsibility that modern subjects demand and honour. The Conclusion spells out the implications of this thesis for Derrida Studies in particular and for the fields of critical political and educational thought more generally. It is suggested that if one takes to heart the meaning of responsibility as giving an account or rendering reason, then one must interrogate the politics of what presents itself as critique, and one must do so as vigilantly as possible. This poses a threat to normative ideals and values, but it is what reason as self-critique, for the very chance of a future, requires.