From logocentrism to “etho-decentrism”. Derrida’s contributions to contemporary ethics

Abstract

The aim of this article is to highlight the ontological premises from which Derrida will develop, throughout his work, a line of thought more oriented towards ethical questions: wich echoes some of the main concerns of our time, as regards the enhancement of difference in the name of the emancipation of minorities, and in the deconstruction of the tradition that until then had framed the relationship of the human being with the animal. In this way, we intend to es- Del logocentrismo al “etho-Descentrismo”. aportes De DerriDa a las éticas contemporáneas193 tablish and question the elements of the deconstruction of Western metaphysics in the first publications of Derrida, in relation to the ethical horizon in which his work of maturity ends. We will come to identify and reformulate the emblematic concepts from which this ethical horizon becomes possible, to the extent that the way in which Derrida proceeds to the deconstruction of metaphysics already depends on an emancipatory goal that will be more explicitly displayed in later works. Our research is motivated by the idea that movements for the emancipation of minorities and questioning the traditional relationship with animals can only have consequences if they are philosophically grounded, and in thath sense the time has come to redirect the deconstructive thought to the ontological problems that initially motivate its operative gesture. These analyses will lead us to verify that, in the last works Derrida, and especially in the last book published in life, L’Animal que donc je suis (2004), the declarations of ethical order, around the animal question, are effectively in continuity with the deconstruction of the metaphysical tradition set in motion since his first works.