Fables of Responsibility by Thomas Keenan

Description

Keenan, a student of  Jacques Derrida,  finds his teacher’s ‘apriori synthesis of active and passive genesis’ in the inextricability of prescriptive and descriptive language, so that we can recognise this fundamental philosophical paradox in our everyday language and stories.

Keenan further locates a nuanced ‘post-subjective agency’ within this undecidability of origin and thus responds finally to the sublime conclusions drawn out of the 18^th Century European philosophical project of modernism, and its deconstruction, not with the prevalent ethico-political lethargy but with the dawning of responsibility proper, an empowering answer to the call of the other that remains after scientific certainty and its deconstruction.

Ethicary’s preface to the book can be read here – https://www.academia.edu/37999742/The_Paradox_of_Freedom_and_Responsibility