ABSTRACT
It is unlikely that there is only one legacy, to pick up the title of the Tate series that gave rise to the present volume. Equally, it’s a bit early to say what the legacies are, quite apart from the problem of naming the legatees, for which it is definitely premature. Likewise, at a greater distance in time, someone will be able to discuss in detail the concerns Jacques Derrida himself obviously had about his legacies. While alive he made himself open to discussion with many others, of very different philosophical traditions and persuasions (Reading 1999, London 2000, Frankfurt 2001, to name only three). But he also operated with a quite small circle of close friends and collaborators, to whom he could open, with whom he could relax, on whom he could rely. And one can imagine that he envisaged his after-life in others’ minds and books, and the possibility that the most originally faithful might come from somewhere not foreseeable, not even plausible from today. I shall return to this kind of presaging of the unanticipatable at the end of this essay.
