Abstract

Derrida's account of différance emerges as his response to the phenomenological problem of genesis. Différance, like the problem of genesis, is a temporal issue, though not a simple or straightforward one. As temporal, it indicates a clear relation to futurity (deferral). This emphasis on futurity remains throughout Derrida's work, as he seeks to balance Husserl's futurity of constituting horizons with Levinas's eschatological futurity of being-constituted. This chapter examines the development of Derrida's notion of futurity, from the early work on différance to the later work on the messianic. This later work explicitly highlights the intersubjective (social, historical, political, etc.) elements that lie at the heart of the phenomenological account of futurity. These elements are encapsulated in the notion of the promise, in which I am both the content and the recipient of the promise: I am the promise that I am also called to live up to.

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