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The STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI issue article summary
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Abstract: One of the dominant subjects of the Parisian millennial philosophical thought is the problem of forgiveness, including both its personal and social-historical aspects. Vladimir Jankélévitch, Paul Ricoueur and Jacques Derrida are three significant thinkers deeply engaged in the question. Our paper summarizes the thought of the latter author, in special regard to Jankélévich’s point of view. The uniqueness of Derrida’s angle lays in its one-sided emphasis on the unconditionality of forgiveness, as well as the paradox saying that “only the unforgivable can be forgiven”. Hence on one hand in his analysis, the Christian teaching on forgiveness is not pliable enough, while on the other hand, his own fundamental view obstructs him from reading the writings of Jankélévitch with more sense and sensitivity. After the WWII, Derrida moves to France as a juvenile. Although he has a Jewish family background, he is not affected directly – through the death of his loved ones or in his own body – by the destruction of madness. Possibly this is the source of the distanced and objective aspect of his analysis, which sometimes easily turns into the pliability of linguistic and mental game, or into a light arbitrariness. As opposed to Jankélévitch’s writing, this is not one soaked with blood and smoke, not even when it talks about the holocaust. Typically to his work, instead of beginning with the list of dreadful historical events, which need to be forgiven, he begins with linguistics: with the indication, that unlike in Greek, in Latin languages there is a clear etymological connection between gift and forgiveness: don and pardon are two inseparable words.
Keywords: forgiveness, gift, lapse, the unforgivable, collective sin, personal responsability, relief, reconciliation, public apology |
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