The bind of responsibility: Kierkegaard, Derrida, and the Akedah of Isaac

From: Philosophy Today | Date: April 1, 2003| Author: | Copyright information

KIERKEGAARD, DERRIDA, AND THE AKEDAH OF ISAAC

Kierkegaard's treatment of the story of Abraham and Isaac in Fear and Trembling raises a number of difficult questions about responsibility and accountability.1 In his The Gift of Death Derrida presents a reading of Fear and Trembling that recovers those difficult questions. I shall argue that the recovery can be significantly deepened by turning to Jewish accounts of the binding of Isaac used by neither Kierkegaard nor Derrida. The Jewish sources help us to grasp the predicament of responsibility in terms of being bound to others.

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