Living with the Irreparable. A Critique of Derrida's Theory of Forgiveness

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1 Jacques Derrida's eulogy for himself, read at this burial by one of the his sons, translated into English by Gila Walker, Critical Inquiry 33: 2, Winter 2007, p.462 2 Jürgen Habermas, ‘Fundamentalism and Terror’, in Giovanna Borradori, Philosophy in a Time of Terror. Dialogues with Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), p.28. 3 If my hypothesis is right, this universal victimization could bring to an end the possibility that witnessing violence from a distance increases the spectator's sense of personal safety. This was Kant's optimistic conclusion when he claimed that the impact of devastating natural violence onto a viewer does not necessarily amount to an increase of fear. See Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgement, trans. Paul Guyer and Eric Matthews (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p.129. ‘Seized by amazement bordering on terror, by horror bordering a sacred thrill,’ Kant wrote, ‘the spectator would not feel actual fear’. To the contrary, it is precisely his ability to register ‘that very power's might and connect the mental agitation with the mind's state of rest’ that reveals human superiority to nature. 4 Although this Manichean set of oppositions has by now been abundantly debated and denounced in its inappropriateness for political use, its normative impact is still pervasive. Suffice to mention the ‘accusation’ of affiliation with the Islamic faith moved during the 2008 Presidential Campaign against Barack Obama. 5 Jacques Derrida, ‘On Forgiveness’, in Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness (London and New York: Routledge, 2001), p.42. 6 Giovanna Borradori, ‘The Culture of Terrorism’, in Philosophy Today, Winter 2005, pp.397-407. 7 Jacques Derrida, ‘On Forgiveness’, p.28. 8 Jacques Derrida, ‘On Forgiveness’, p.28. 9 With good reasons, there has been considerable debate on how each brand of the Abrahamic lineage worked out the terms of divine forgiveness. Robert Gibbs points out, for example, how the Jewish notion of Teshuvah, or repentance, literally means ‘returning’, assumed as a turning around back to God and the neighbour who has been offended. For Gibbs, the Jewish tradition concentrates more on returning than forgiving, which entails that a premium is placed on the offer of an apology that grants one's return, rather than on the act of accepting the apology, which grants the sinner re-acceptance and re-entry in the community of faith. See Robert Gibbs, ‘Returning/Forgiving. Ethics and Theology’, in Questioning God, eds. John Caputo, Mark Dooley and Michael J. Scanlon (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001), pp.73-91. 10 Derrida, ‘To Forgive. The Unforgivable and Imprescriptible’, in Questioning God, p.53. 11 In conditional forgiveness Derrida does not differentiate between enabling conditions, including remorse and reparation, and instrumental conditions, such as personal salvation and political reconciliation. Whereas the enabling conditions make forgiveness depend on desert, the instrumental conditions make predicate it to a finality that transcends completely its transformative power. On this basis, it seems to me that instrumental conditions should be separated out from the enabling conditions. (see, Ernesto Verdeja, ‘Derrida and the Impossibility of Forgiveness’, in Contemporary Political Theory 3:1, April 2004, pp. 23–47). 12 Jacques Derrida, ‘To Forgive. The Unforgivable and Imprescriptible’ p.32. 13 Jacques Derrida, ‘On Forgiveness’, p.39. 14 Jacques Derrida, ‘On Forgiveness’, p.55. 15 I owe this crucial distinction to Kelly Oliver, who articulated it in her book, Witnessing Beyond Recognition (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001). For a concise version of her argument see ‘Witnessing and Testimony’, in Parallax, vol.10, n.1 (2004), pp.78-88. 16 Duma Kumalo, Theforgivenessproject.com [3/10/2010]. 17 Duma Kumalo, Theforgivenessproject.com [3/10/2010]. 18 Jacques Derrida, ‘On Forgiveness’ p.59. 19 Anna Akhmatova, ‘Requiem’ in The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova, trans. Judith Hemschemeyer (Brookline MA: Zephyr Press, 2000), p.384.