Heidegger in the Twenty-First Century by Tziovanis Georgakis & Paul J. Ennis

Author:Tziovanis Georgakis & Paul J. Ennis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht

Of course, Derrida recognizes that ‘one must know as much as possible and as well as possible before deciding,’45 but there will always remain a gap between decision and knowledge. The moment of decision, the moment of responsibility, thus supposes a rupture with the order of knowledge and with calculative rationality, if it is the case that ‘a decision always takes place beyond calculation.’46 To that extent, there is what Derrida calls a ‘madness of the impossible’47 as opening to the incalculable.48 It is a matter of deciding without knowing, without seeing [voir] or foreseeing [prévoir], thus from a certain invisible or unforeseeable, without being able to calculate all the consequences of the decision, by entering, as Derrida says, into ‘the night of the unintelligible.’49 To that extent, Derrida will go so far as to speak of an ‘unconscious decision’! ‘In sum, a decision is unconscious—insane as that may seem, it involves the unconscious and nevertheless remains responsible.’50

If the decision takes place as a leap into the unknown, then it can never be ‘my’ decision. Derrida explains:Just as we say ‘I give’ and ‘I forgive’ too easily, we also easily say, ‘I decide’ or ‘I take responsibility’ or ‘I’m responsible.’ These statements are all equally inadmissible. To say ‘I decide,’ to say ‘you know that I decide, I know that I decide,’ means that I am capable of deciding and master of my decision, that I have a criterion that allows me to say that I’m the one who decides. If this is true, the decision is a sort of expression of my power, of my possibility.51

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