The philosophy and literature of the death penalty: Two sides of the same sovereign
Southern Journal of Philosophy 50:39-55 (2012)
| Abstract | This essay demonstrates that in his 1999–2000 Death Penalty Seminar Jacques Derrida pursues the deconstruction of political theology that he had been pursuing in a more or less explicit fashion for more than two decades. Derrida's interest in the theme of the death penalty can be traced back in large part, it is argued, to the theological and essentially Judeo-Christian origins that Derrida finds in discourses both for and against the death penalty. This emphasis on the theological origins of the death penalty helps explain why Derrida spends much more time questioning the principles, rhetoric, and images of abolitionist discourses than pro–death penalty discourses. For Derrida, this essay concludes, a critique or deconstruction of discourses surrounding the death penalty is never more critical than in a putatively postreligious, secular age. In the end, Derrida hopes to provide what may be the very first philosophical abolitionist discourse, one that argues against the death penalty without relying on the language, tropes, symbols, and images of Judeo-Christian theology | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,679 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesPeggy Kamuf (2012). Protocol: Death Penalty Addiction. Southern Journal of Philosophy 50:5-19.
Matthias Fritsch (2012). Derrida on the Death Penalty. Southern Journal of Philosophy 50:56-73.
Thomas Dutoit (2012). Kant's Retreat, Hugo's Advance, Freud's Erection; or, Derrida's Displacements in His Death Penalty Lectures. Southern Journal of Philosophy 50:107-135.
Kas Saghafi (2012). The Death Penalty, in Other Words, Philosophy. Southern Journal of Philosophy 50:136-142.
Kelly Oliver (2012). See Topsy “Ride the Lightning”: The Scopic Machinery of Death. Southern Journal of Philosophy 50:74-94.
Martin McQuillan (2009). Extra Time and the Death Penalties: On a Newly Arisen Violent Tone in Philosophy. Derrida Today 2 (2):133-150.
Marguerite la Caze (2009). Derrida: Opposing Death Penalties. Derrida Today 2 (2):186-199.
Elizabeth Rottenberg (2012). Cruelty and its Vicissitudes: Jacques Derrida and the Future of Psychoanalysis. Southern Journal of Philosophy 50:143-159.
Geoffrey Bennington (2012). Rigor; or, Stupid Uselessness. Southern Journal of Philosophy 50:20-38.
Joel B. Zivot (2012). The Absence of Cruelty is Not the Presence of Humanness: Physicians and the Death Penalty in the United States. Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine 7 (1):13-.
Olivia Custer (2012). Angling for a Stranglehold on the Death Penalty. Southern Journal of Philosophy 50:160-173.
Elissa Marder (2012). The Elephant and the Scaffold: Response to Kelly Oliver. Southern Journal of Philosophy 50:95-106.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2012-08-10Total downloads9 ( #114,063 of 549,088 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,317 of 549,088 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
