Abstract

This essay focuses on Derrida’s 1975-1976 seminar Life Death and the dual notion of “program” that informs it. In this seminar, Derrida juxtaposes a reading of the notion of “program” used by French biologist François Jacob in his depiction of the workings of DNA with reflections on the “program” of the agrégation exam that had set as its topic for that year “Life and Death.” The paper thus begins by looking at the critical role played by the agrégation exam in the production or reproduction of philosophy as a discipline in France. It then analyzes Derrida’s reading of Jacob’s La logique du vivant in terms of two supposedly distinct programs, the putatively inflexible program of DNA, a program shared by all living beings, and the freer, more flexible program of human culture and institutions, including pedagogical institutions such as the agrégation. The result, I argue, is a complete rethinking of the forms of production or reproduction at stake in both genetics and education.