There is a future which is predictable, programmed, scheduled, foreseeable. But there is a future, l'avenir (to come) which refers to someone who comes whose arrival is totally unexpected. For me, that is the real future. That which is totally unpredictable. The Other who comes without my being able to anticipate their arrival. So if there is a real future, beyond the other known future, it is l'avenir in that it is the coming of the Other when I am completely unable to foresee their arrival.
Jacques DerridaWhy is it apparently the philosopher who is expected to be "easier" and not some scientist or other who is even more inaccessible to the same readers?
Jacques DerridaActually, when I write, there is a feeling of necessity, of something that is stronger than myself that demands that I must write as I write.
Jacques DerridaThe blindness that opens the eye is not the one that darkens vision. Tears and not sight are the essence of the eye.
Jacques DerridaPsychoanalysis has taught that the dead – a dead parent, for example – can be more alive for us, more powerful, more scary, than the living. It is the question of ghosts.
Jacques Derrida