Publication Details
Where does the World of Forgiveness Begin and Where is Its End?
Abstract
The paper aims at a closer view at the most important aspects of somewhat radical, but enlightening response of J. Derrida (1930 – 2004) to V. Jankélévich’s (1903 – 1985) approach to the problem of forgiveness, articulated as related to the ex-emption from the statue of limitations, concerning the crimes against humanity. The author focuses on two topics in the core of this polemics, the first one being the relationship between the exemption from the statue of limitations and the unforgivable, the second one being the roles of the conditioned and the unconditioned in the idea of forgiveness. Through the analysis of the fundamental assertions in Derrida’s Pardoner: l’impardonnable et l’imprescriptible and by confronting them with the ideas in Jankélévich’s L’imprescriptible the author comes to the following conclusion: The acceptance of forgiveness in its original meaning of a generous, but a rare gesture, independent of ulterior motives, should not hide the incurable evil present behind this gesture. Thus the evil can not turn banal and the moral duty of memory is still preserved.