The unconditionality of an act of faith in the «for coming»

Abstract

Text of a keynote speech delivered at the international Colloquium Derrida Lectures – 2016, In memoriam Jacques Derrida: University to Come – Sovereignty, Solidarity, Hospitality, this paper advocates that Jacques Derrida’s deconstructive thinking, «eminently creative and liberating» (Dominique de Villepin) and enlivened with justice, is perhaps the only one able to responsibly respond to the urgencies and challenges of our somber time. It shows how, in the name of unconditionality, singularly distinct from sovereignty, this thinking appeals the University to the responsibility of re-‑thinking and positioning itself as an institution like no other in the world so as to become, in the spirit of its vocation, mission and concept, a last resource of resistance and a light focus for the Lights of other Humanities and of another world of the Enlightenment-to‑come.