Abstract

The book ends with a discussion of 'political friendship'. Chapter five is built around Derrida's last question in The Politics of Friendship: What is the political impact and range of this specifically chosen word - friendship? In contrast to demands for justice or reconciliation, political friendship calls for peace without a priori conditions. The chapter develops a concept of friendship which is not defined within the order of kinship and fraternity and is an ethical principle based on avoiding and preventing harm or damage. This new demarcation of relations gives rise to a new discourse of possible peace and a possible present that eludes that nefarious dialectic by which peace sustains war.

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