In contemporary, French phenomenology, a debate has arisen concerning whether phenomenology can allow for a certain kind of “theological” consideration. In particular, Jean-Luc Marion argues that the potential of the reduction has not been fully explored and that a full reduction to pure givenness in fact allows one to give an account of the paradoxical experience of the impossible beyond experience, which is described as a phenomenon of revelation and may include a Revelation of God. Marion’s claims have been considered contentious. As I interpret it, the debate plays out between 1) those who also admit that phenomenology can occasion a form of “theological” consideration, but maintain, unlike Marion, that it remains a more existential affirmation of the impossible beyond experience, represented by Jacques Derrida and John Caputo, and 2) those who refuse any role for this impossible beyond experience within phenomenology (and perhaps more generally), and insist that phenomenology be preserved as an essentialist science of the appearances, represented by Dominique Janicaud. I take the positions of Derrida and Caputo, on the one hand, and Janicaud, on the other, to each entail extreme consequences that ought to be avoided—the former resulting in a form of irrationalism and the latter converting phenomenology into a form of pragmatism. Furthermore, I find Marion’s basic claim, that the impossible beyond experience ought to have a role in shaping finite experience, to be worth investigating further. However, Marion concedes too much to the deconstructive position of Derrida and Caputo at the outset, and so I find that the philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer provides an opportunity to correct some of the deficiencies in Marion’s position, but also argue to a similar end as he does. I find that Gadamer’s position incorporates an implicit analogical structure between rational experience and the impossible, thereby permitting one to maintain the impossible as impossible, but also affirm a certain possibility for understanding it.

This thesis examines the concept of sovereignty, as developed by the jurist Carl Schmitt, and argues that this concept helps to elucidate the very core of Fear and Trembling, a text that continues to be heavily misunderstood despite its great fame in Western thought today. Through a close examination of Schmitt’s formulation of the concept of sovereignty and the method by which he develops this concept through Kierkegaard’s concept of the exception in Repetition, I show how Kierkegaard influenced Schmitt and also how Schmitt’s interpretation is useful for reading Fear and Trembling. However, I also show how Schmitt’s usage of Kierkegaard, despite its ingenuity, is misleading, and present a more faithful reading of Kierkegaard’s concept of exception. With this reorientation, I in turn critique Schmitt’s methodology and the way he understands sovereignty. Following this reinterpretation of sovereignty, I examine the text of Genesis 22 and Fear and Trembling and examine the theological themes that ground the narrative of the Binding of Isaac. I argue that the problem of the Binding and the arguments set forth in Fear and Trembling cannot be understood adequately without a clear awareness of the image of reality that is presupposed. Here, I make use of Erich Auerbach’s illuminating reading of Genesis 22, and Jacob Taubes’ understanding of eschatology. I then examine the problem of violence as presented in the Binding, and how Kierkegaard departs from both Kant’s and Hegel’s critique of Abraham. Finally, I examine Derrida’s reading of Fear and Trembling in The Gift of Death and the way he challenges the height of sovereignty that is implicit within Kierkegaard’s “absolute relation to the absolute.” / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

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Ce mémoire vise à élucider le rapport entre la violence et le pouvoir souverain à partir de la Critique de la violence de Walter Benjamin et Force de loi de Jacques Derrida. Les réflexions proposées ici sont issues de deux constats : (i) que nos structures politiques reposent sur l’emploi continu de la violence et (ii) qu’une révolution abolit l’ordre existant en s’accordant le monopole sur la violence légitime, reconduisant ainsi le cycle de la violence. Pour sortir de cette impasse, Benjamin imagine une violence capable de destituer le pouvoir souverain, c’est-à-dire de l’abolir sans pour autant le saisir à son tour. Ce mémoire poursuit le développement du concept de destitution en trois temps. Dans un premier temps, nous lisons de près la Critique de la violence de Benjamin. Dans un deuxième temps, nous approfondissons notre analyse avec la lecture déconstructive proposée par Derrida dans Force de loi. Finalement, le concept de destitution est enrichi par des travaux contemporains et examiné sous l’angle de la responsabilité pour l’avenir. / This thesis investigates the relationship between violence and sovereign power by drawing on Walter Benjamin's Critique of Violence and Jacques Derrida's Force de loi. The reflections proposed here are based on two observations: (i) that our political structures are based on the continuous use of violence, and (ii) that a revolution abolishes the existing order by granting itself a monopoly on legitimate violence, thus renewing the cycle of violence. To break this deadlock, Benjamin imagines a form of violence capable of destituting sovereign power, i.e. abolishing it without seizing it. This dissertation further develops the concept of destitution in three steps. First, we carefully read Benjamin's Critique of Violence. Secondly, we deepen our analysis with the deconstructive reading proposed by Derrida in Force de loi. Finally, we enrich the concept of destitution with contemporary works and examine it through the lens of responsibility for what is to come.

[pt] Esta tese se propõe a refletir a postura de Jacques Derrida diante das obras de arte ditas visuais. Partindo de uma invisibilidade na fonte de todo visível, Derrida problematiza a estrutura hierárquica do pensamento estético, abrindo uma outra abordagem artística não sobre, mas em torno das obras. O famoso tema de um abalo desconstrutivo no pensamento metafísico da presença desdobra-se, neste trabalho, na in-visibilidade do traço do desenho e na espectralidade da imagem cinematográfica. / [fr] Cette thèse vise à penser le point de vue de Jacques Derrida vis-à-vis les oeuvres d art visuels. En partant d une invisibilité à la source du visible, Derrida met en question la structure hiérarchique de la pensée esthétique en ouvrant une autre approche, non pas sur les images, mais autour d elles. Le célèbre thème du choc déconstrutif dans la pensée métaphysique de la présence est traité, ici, dans l in-visibilité du trait du dessin et dans la spectralité de l image cinematographique.

À l’orée des années soixante, la performance a cherché à imposer un art de l’action éphémère que n’entraverait aucun type de médiation, qu’il soit symbolique (la distance acteur/spectateur), technique (les médias), ou même linguistique (le langage, les signes). Enjeu de nombreux débats entre les années 1960 et 1990, ces tentatives ont trouvé de multiples formulations théoriques s’appuyant sur les outils du poststructuralisme en particulier, mais aussi sur des cadres de pensée différents, directement hérités du modernisme de Greenberg. On explore ici les étapes et enjeux de ce croisement, jusqu’à la rupture apportée dans les années 1990 et 2000 où les débats théoriques, toujours dirigés par des schémas poststructuralistes, redonnèrent une place centrale aux médiations, tout particulièrement au document. Or, la figure importante de la pratique artistique qu’est devenu le document depuis les années soixante s’avère mettre en question l’ontologie traditionnelle de la performance, orientée sur l’événement, autant que son épistémologie, qui valorise l’expérience directe. La prise en compte des dimensions instrumentales et artistiques du document nous conduit à réviser la poïétique traditionnelle de la performance et les théories de la communication qui lui sont liées, et à repenser par là même l’opposition entre objet et événement qui fonde la définition de la performance. C’est ainsi qu’on interroge le rapport de celle-ci à l’inscription, pour la redéfinir comme un art irréductible à son contexte d’exécution et travaillé en profondeur par la reproduction et la représentation, au travers notamment de l’étude de certaines figures exemplaires, Allan Kaprow, Chris Burden ou Tino Sehgal. / On the edge of the 1960’s, performance looked after imposing an art of ephemeral action that no kind of mediation would impede, be it symbolic (the distance between actor and spectator), technical (the medias), or even linguistical (language, signs). Those attempts led to numerous discussions between the 1960’s and the 1990’s, and have found numerous theoretical formulations using particularly the tools of poststructuralism, but also frames of thought directly inherited from Greenberg modernism. We explore here the stages and issues of this cross-over until the break of the 1990’s and 2000’s where the theoretical debates, always using poststructuralist schemes, gave a central role to mediations, particularly to the document. Documents have become an important figure of artistic practice since the 1960’s and turned out to question the traditional ontology of performance, based on the event, as well as its epistemology that promotes live experience. We try to consider the instrumental and artistic dimensions of the document ; this leads us to revise the traditional poetics of performance and theories of communication that are related to it, and to consider anew the opposition between object and event on which the definition of performance is based. Thus, we question the links between performance and inscription, redefined as an art that is irreducible to its context of execution and worked in depth by reproduction and representation, through the study of certain figureheads : Allan Kaprow, Chris Burden or Tino Sehgal.

Diploma thesis "I become speech." Death and Return of the Author in the Perspective of Philosophy of Identity focuses on the question of inclusion of the author into the interpretation of literary text and aims to highlight the fruitfulness of such inclusion as well as some of its dangers. The thesis is divided into three parts. In the first part the author of the thesis presents a polemic account of some antiauthorial approaches, especially the "death of the author" as appearing in the texts of R. Barthes, M. Foucault and Jacques Derrida, along with a short mention of antiintentionalism of W. K Wimsatt and M. C. Beardsley and a theory of the model author by U. Eco. The common feature of the aforementioned antiauthorial theories is a reductive idea of the author and his relation to text - the problematic aspects of authorial interpretation, which their texts wish to make evident, is then only a consequence of the problematic underlying notion of the author-subject. The second part of the thesis intends to present an alternative theoretical understanding of the "real author" using the philosophy of identity od J. Butler and P. Bourdieu. These authors are proposing a theory of a person who is not understood as a "real thing" that would be available for a complete delimitation, description and...

Having been introduced in Sweden in the 1980’s, one would perhaps have thought postmodern philosophy to be a thing of the past. As it turns out, the debate on postmodernism is still very much alive. But the term ‘postmodernism’ in 2021 is complex and sometimes misunderstood. In public discourse, the term has moved beyond its status as a continental philosophy or as a denomination for certain historical conditions of the late twentieth century. Today, it appears, people use ‘postmodernism’ as an invective for relativism, post-truth and ‘empty words’. Two books, published in 2020, even warn the Swedish people for a postmodern invasion of both the academics and Swedish government. The humanities, apparently, are especially corrupted by postmodern thinking. Is this true? As a rhetorician, I ask myself to what extent postmodern theory has had an influence on Swedish rhetoric in the 40 years since the discipline was re-established within higher education.  This essay examines course syllabuses, teaching material, Swedish articles in the periodical Rhetorica Scandinavica, doctoral theses, and the complete works published by Sweden’s eight professors of rhetoric. Early on, I found that there was very little information available about the development of  Swedish rhetoric –even less about a postmodern rhetoric in a Swedish context. Thus, this essay is to be looked at as both a history of Swedish postmodern rhetoric – the first of its kind – and as an examination of the occurrence of postmodern theory within Swedish rhetoric. I find that postmodernism has not, as opposed to the critics’ claims, played a key role in the development of Swedish rhetoric. Its presence has, however, significantly increased within the field of rhetoric since 2010, and I discuss why that might be. Further, I discuss what can be said to define the Swedish postmodern rhetoric, and what the future might hold for this specific branch of rhetorical studies and research.

[pt] Nesta tese enfrento problemáticas dos Direitos Humanos pela filosofia política e crítica ao direito. Num primeiro momento, apresento crítica à tradição e uma breve genealogia de como se dá o pensamento e a história desses direitos, tanto da ordem dos discursos de fundamentação como da sua afirmação social. Em seguida, trabalho a encruzilhada dos Direitos Humanos a partir da relação com a soberania e a biopolítica, respectivamente, segundo Jacques Derrida e Michel Foucault. Por um lado, é de se destacar o acentuado caráter histórico e político dos Direitos Humanos, de outro, questionar seu potencial de transformação social. A encruzilhada aparece e a problematização se dá, pois, se os Direitos Humanos são esforço do histórico de mobilizações contrário a injustiças sociais e modelos jurídicos conservadores, também, passam a fazer parte de nossa era de direitos como fundamento e manifestação legítima do direito. Inclusive, por vezes, se voltam contra seus próprios fins. Nesse contexto, os Direitos Humanos estão atrelados ao ímpeto civilizatório ocidental, ao capitalismo global, à ordem internacional e às violências de estado, ao mesmo tempo em que se manifestam com as lutas políticas, as conquistas sociais e as defesas contra violações de direito. A partir disso, problematizo os Direitos Humanos diante de seus fins e de sua força como direito, também, lanço a problemática de como pensá-los diante dos caminhos cruzados, da diferença das forças e da contínua abertura à mudança social presentes em sua atualidade. Com essa delimitação, estudo o potencial dos ‘Direitos Humanos na encruzilhada’, segundo a produção social e a definição da humanidade. Isso se dá, pela intersecção da soberania e da biopolítica, conforme são ultrapassados limites do direito e atingidos novos domínios da vida e da sociedade. O que implica reformular questões em torno da normatividade, da força e da realização dos Direitos Humanos. Por fim, destaco algumas tensões em meio às relações sociais e às composições de poder dos Direitos Humanos no cenário político atual. / [en] This thesis consists of a study about problems concerned to Human Rights from political philosophy and critique of law. At first, with a critique of the tradition of Human Rights and a brief genealogy of how thought and history of Human Rights took place, both in terms of foundational speeches and social statements. After that, due to open fractures with the philosophy of Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, the idea is to distinguish how Human Rights function when related to sovereignty and biopolitics. It is important to highlight the historical and political nature of law, and to question its potential of social transformation, once Human Rights are at the crossroads: If Human Rights are an effort of the history of mobilizations contrary to social injustices and conservative legal models, they also become our era of rights as foundations and part of legitimate law. Even, at times, they turn against their own ends. In this context, the concept of Human Rights is linked to western civilization, global capitalism, international order and state violence, at the same time that Human Rights are made with political struggles, social conquests, institutional protection and defense against rights violation. In this context, is important to investigate how to think about Human Rights once considered the difference of forces of their formation and continuous openness to changes. This work turns to the potential of Human Rights at the crossroads, which is crucial to the crossroads itself, according to its social production and ability to define the political and humanity. Which results from the intersection of sovereign power and biopolitics, as the premises of law are displaced and the Human Rights reaches new domains of life and society. This implies reformulating questions about normativity, enforcement and achievement of Human Rights. At the end, it is consequential to highlight tensions of these rights in the midst of social relations and compositions of power in the current political scenario. / [fr] Dans cette présente thèse, les questions de Droits de l Homme sont confrontées à la philosophie politique et à lacritique du Droit. Dans un premier temps, il se fait une critique de la tradition et une brève généalogie de la manière dont la pensée et l histoire de ces droits se déroulent, tant au niveau des discours de raisonnement que de leur affirmation sociale. Ensuite, le travail se retrouve dans une sorte de croisement des Droits de l Homme à partir du rapport à la souveraineté et à la biopolitique, respectivement, selon Jacques Derrida et Michel Foucault. D une part, il faut souligner l important caractère historique et politique des Droits de l Homme, d autre part, s interroger sur leur potentiel de transformation sociale. La croisée des chemins apparaît et la problématisation s opère, car si les Droits de l Homme sont le résultat de l effort historique de mobilisations contre les injustices sociales et les modèles juridiques conservateurs, mais, ils s inscrivent aussi dans notre ère des droits comme fondement et manifestation légitime du droit.Parfois, ils se retournent même contre leurs propres fins. Dans ce contexte, les Droits de l Homme sont liés à la poussée civilisatrice occidentale, au capitalisme mondial, à l ordre international et à la violence d État, mais aussi aux luttes politiques, aux conquêtes sociales et à la défense face aux violations des droits. A partir de là, les Droits de l Homme sont premièrement problématisés face à leurs fins et leur force en tant que droit, et, ensuite, problématisés sur la façon de les penser face aux chemins croisés, à la différence des forces et à l ouverture continue aux changements sociaux présents de nos jours. Dans cette délimitation, il convient de souligner le potentiel des Droits de l Homme à la croisée des chemins à partir de leur production sociale et de leur capacité à définir l espace politique et celui de l humanité. Cela arrive à travers l intersection de la souveraineté et de la biopolitique, au fur et à mesure que les limites du droit sont dépassées et que de nouveaux domaines de la vie et de la société sont atteints. Cela implique de reformuler les questions autour de la normativité, de la force et de la réalisation des Droits de l Homme. Enfin, les tensions de ces droits sont questionnées face aux relations sociales et aux compositions du pouvoir dans le scénario politique actuel.

Missing children is one of the horrors that we are confronted with in today's society. The case study method, a feminist co-search methodology, is used to give a missing child's mother the opportunity to tell and re-tell the painful story. During this co-search process the following aspects of doing ethics and pastoral care and counselling with the mother are constantly negotiated. The term "missing child" is defined and the relevance between the distinction of "missing children" and "run-away children" is discussed. Furthermore, this study explores the many diverse practices of narrative pastoral care and counselling with parents of missing children within an economically disadvantaged community. The conceptualisations regarding loss, hope and meaning-making and how these are utilised in the life of a missing child's mother is discussed. / Practical Theology / M.Th.