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June 4, 2003
In comments made to an earlier post Derrida made relevant John Quiggin writes:
"The general tendency of Derrida's thought is clearly towards "anything goes", and the natural consequence is that what "goes" will be what is preferred by the rich and powerful."
My response is that Derrida works within the horizons of the philosophical tradition even though he pushes or stretches the boundaries---eg., by emphasizing philosophy's relationship to literature. But what tradition? Clearly the continental philosophical tradition rathe than the Anglo-American one. But which political tradition?
This provides an answer. It suggests the liberal Enlightenment tradition. I quote.
"In an essay written by Habermas, co-signed by Derrida and published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) newspaper on Saturday, the two philosophers called on the "avant-garde" core of European states to return to European enlightenment values.
Habermas identified five attributes he said Europeans share: the neutrality of authority, embodied in the separation of church and state, trust in politics rather than the capitalist market, an ethos of solidarity in the fight for social justice, high esteem for international law and the rights of the individual and support for the organizational and leading role of the state."
A summaryof the Habermas/Derrida paper can be found here . It says that Europeans must try to provide "balance" against the "hegemonic unilateralism of the U.S" through international bodies including the U.N; the guiding idea of the Europeans should be the creation of a Kantian "cosmopolitan (world) order on the basis of law." There is more but it is enough to put the crude 'anything goes' claim to one side.
Of course, US conservatives like Anne Coulter would up the ante.This is old Europe speaking. She would contend that these liberals of Old Europe stand with the enemies of American interests and actively cooperate with the forces of totalitarianism and terror. Liberals are against America. This religious conservatism is part of the counter enlightenment. Derrida would stand against that.
Update
A draft translation of the Derrida/Habermas letter can be found here. Some comments by Josh Cherniss can be found here
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