ABSTRACT
Derrida’s thought can, as the above shows, be read as enacting a destabilisation of metaphysics, ontology and processes of opinion construction; it can, consequently, provide salient means by which Strauss’s thought may be challenged. It concurrently offers a robust way of critiquing the interventions enacted by the Straussians identified above, in the context of the invasion of Iraq. However, it may be, or may be inexorably, the case that there are instances wherein certain forms of essential or foundational categories and assumptions (re)appear within Derrida’s philosophy. In order to expose and resist this, the movements of deconstruction must be understood as ceaseless, and must be ceaselessly attended to, and the temptation to self-exempt, in ways such as those in evidence in Strauss’s project, struggled against. Accordingly, in a manner that accords with both the letter and spirit of his thought, this final chapter exposes a series of dimensions of Derrida’s work where such foundational claims may be operating. It proceeds by examining a series of instances in which such categories or points of reference may be in evidence – namely the invocation of a Levinasian supplement, the category of the “worst”, the question of teleology, Derrida’s use of the Kantian “Regulative Idea”, as well as commenting upon the issues of time and openness.
