Sovereignty in Derrida: in relation to democracy, friendship, and animality

In: http://hdl.handle.net/1993/32578

Abstract

Recognizing how it pervades the Western philosophical tradition, I chose Derrida's study of the concept of sovereignty as the topic of my research, particularly its genealogy and its implications for democracy, friendship, and the thinking of animality vis-à-vis the human ideal of rationality. In my thesis, I analyze how Derrida uncovers the tensions within the concept of sovereignty so as to call into question the exceptionality and indivisibility that thinkers from Plato to Carl Schmitt have accorded to it. For instance, in tracing the genealogy of sovereignty to the theological image of the Judeo-Christian, primarily Christian, monotheistic God who is absolute in his power, Derrida underscores the heterogeneous structure of sovereignty which in turn problematizes the claim for the indivisibility of human sovereign power. ; October 2017