Although these authors share plenty of philosophical insights, this course will focus on want we consider is the relationship between the unfounded subject and the unavoidable plea of the other as binding. The suspicion that leads the course is that if we would grasp their understanding of the radical temporality of the subject, the ‘apparent’ aporias of their prescriptive notions will appear - if not solved - grounded. Hospitality, gratefulness, forgiveness, responsibility, et all, are not moral hyperboles but the result of the un-original character of the self.
Readings
Derrida: Aporias; The monoliguism of the Other; or, the Prosthesis of the Origin; The Gift of Death, The Time before First (In Dissemination). On the Levinas side: Time and the Other and excerpts of Totality and infinity.
Difficulty
Although the course is obviously not for beginners I will try to follow careful steps to show in both authors a very similar if not equal interpretation of an originary time before, and always present, in the subject. Keep in mind the course is based on a suspicion.