ABSTRACT
I can imagine someone might look at the title of this book and object: “Are you talking about deconstruction again? Come on. Derrida died years ago. Why still deconstruction?” In reply, I would simply distinguish two kinds of deconstruction. One kind is the philosophical or intellectual movement associated with the name of Derrida or, more exactly, initiated by him. As a movement, whether it is with Derrida or without, deconstruction will eventually have had its day and no longer draw our attention, once it has become an integral part of the awareness of our philosophical tradition. Another kind of deconstruction is the differential process itself, or what happens to binary oppositions in and of themselves. One cannot reconstruct anything without deconstruction. Deconstruction “is constantly at work and was at work before what we call ‘deconstruction’ started.” In this sense, there is no “after” deconstruction: “there is no end, no beginning, and no after.”1 Thus deconstruction continues, will continue, and is and will be everywhere, even without Derrida, and even after his death. It is in this second sense that this volume extends the study of deconstruction to the area of Asian thought, and specifically to the issue of deconstruction and the ethical in Asian thought. Inspired by recent discussions of deconstruction and the ethical in continental philosophy, this anthology examines the unique ethical dimension, implications and consequences of disrupting ethical normativity or normative ethics in various Asian philosophical and religious traditions. The anthology explores some important issues such as the complicated relationship between the so-called aporia of the ethical and the renewal of ethics in both Asian and comparative contexts.
