Editing Jacques Derrida (section)

===1990s: political and ethical themes===
Some have argued that Derrida's work took a political and ethical "turn" in the 1990s. Texts cited as evidence of such a turn include ''[[Force of Law]]'' (1990), as well as ''[[Specters of Marx]]'' (1994) and ''Politics of Friendship'' (1994). Some refer to ''The Gift of Death'' as evidence that he began more directly applying deconstruction to the relationship between ethics and religion. In this work, Derrida interprets passages from the Bible, particularly on [[Abraham]] and the [[Binding of Isaac|Sacrifice of Isaac]],<ref>Jack Reynolds, Jonathan Roffe (2004) [https://books.google.com/books?id=D7jq50nVzGAC ''Understanding Derrida''], p. 49.</ref><ref>''Gift of Death'', pp. 57–72.</ref> and from [[Søren Kierkegaard]]'s ''[[Fear and Trembling]]''.

However, scholars such as [[Leonard Lawlor]], [[Robert Magliola]], and [[Nicole Anderson (philosopher)|Nicole Anderson]]<ref>Nicole Anderson, ''Derrida: Ethics Under Erasure'', Publishing Plc, London, 2013</ref> have argued that the "turn" has been exaggerated.<ref>Leonard Lawlor, ''Derrida and Hume: The Basic Problem of Phenomenology'', Indiana University Press, 2002, p. 211; Robert Magliola, [https://global.oup.com/academic/search?q=Robert+Magliola&cc=us&lang=en ''On Deconstructing Life-Worlds: Buddhism, Christianity, Culture''], Scholars Press of American Academy of Religion, 1997; Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 157–165; Nicole Anderson, ''Derrida: Ethics Under Erasure'', Bloomsbury, 2012, p. 24.</ref>{{Additional citation needed|date=May 2020}} Some, including Derrida himself, have argued that much of the philosophical work done in his "political turn" can be dated to earlier essays.<ref name="Martha C. Nussbaum 1990: 29, 227">{{cite book|last1=Nussbaum|first1=Martha C. |url=https://archive.org/details/lovesknowledge00mart/page/29|title=Love's Knowledge: Essays on Philosophy and Literature|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1990|isbn=978-0195074857|edition=1st|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lovesknowledge00mart/page/29 29]|chapter=Form and Content, Philosophy and Literature|chapter-url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/loves-knowledge-9780195074857}}{{blockquote|[He] chose to address the American Philosophical Association on the topic of Aristotle's theory of friendship ("Journal of Philosophy" 85 (1988), 632–44); Barbara Johnson's "A World of Difference" (Baltimore, 1987) argues that Deconstruction can make valuable ethical and social contributions; and in general there seems to be a return to the ethical and practical...}}</ref>

Derrida develops an ethicist view respecting to hospitality, exploring the idea that two types of hospitalities exist, conditional and unconditional. Though this contributed to the works of many scholars, Derrida was seriously criticized for this.<ref>Rorty, R. (1995). Habermas, Derrida, and the functions of philosophy. Revue internationale de philosophie, 49(194 (4), 437–459.</ref><ref>Rorty, R. (1989). "Is Derrida a transcendental philosopher?". ''The Yale Journal of Criticism'', 2(2), 207.</ref><ref>McCumber, J. (2000). Philosophy and Freedom: Derrida, Rorty, Habermas, Foucault. Indiana University Press.</ref>

Derrida's contemporary readings of [[Emmanuel Levinas]], [[Walter Benjamin]], [[Carl Schmitt]], [[Jan Patočka]], on themes such as law, justice, responsibility, and friendship, had a significant impact on fields beyond philosophy. Derrida and Deconstruction influenced aesthetics, literary criticism, architecture, [[film theory]], [[anthropology]], sociology, [[historiography]], law, [[psychoanalysis]], theology, [[feminism]], gay and lesbian studies and political theory. [[Jean-Luc Nancy]], [[Richard Rorty]], [[Geoffrey Hartman]], [[Harold Bloom]], [[Rosalind Krauss]], [[Hélène Cixous]], [[Julia Kristeva]], [[Duncan Kennedy (legal philosopher)|Duncan Kennedy]], [[Gary Peller]], [[Drucilla Cornell]], [[Alan Hunt (professor)|Alan Hunt]], [[Hayden White]], [[Mario Kopić]], and [[Alun Munslow]] are some of the authors who have been influenced by deconstruction.

Derrida delivered a eulogy at Levinas' funeral, later published as ''Adieu à Emmanuel Lévinas'', an appreciation and exploration of Levinas's moral philosophy. Derrida used [[Bracha L. Ettinger]]'s interpretation of Lévinas' notion of femininity and transformed his own earlier reading of this subject respectively.<ref>B. L. Ettinger in conversation with Emmanuel Lévinas, "Que dirait Eurydice?" / "What would Eurydice Say?" (1991–93). Reprinted to coincide with Kabinet exhibition at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Paris: BLE Atelier, 1997. This is a reprint of ''Le féminin est cette différence inouïe'' (Livre d'artiste, 1994, and it includes the text of ''Time is the Breath of the Spirit'', MOMA, Oxford, 1993). Reprinted in ''Athena: Philosophical Studies''. Vol. 2, 2006.</ref> {{irrelevant citation|date=January 2025|reason= the cited conversation does not reference Derrida's use; need a ref to support Derrida's use of Ettinger's interpretation.}}

Derrida continued to produce readings of literature, writing extensively on [[Maurice Blanchot]], [[Paul Celan]], and others.

In 1991 he published ''The Other Heading'', in which he discussed the concept of [[Identity (social science)|identity]] (as in [[cultural identity]], [[European identity]], and [[national identity]]), in the name of which in Europe have been unleashed "the worst violences," "the crimes of xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism, religious or nationalist fanaticism."<ref>''The Other Heading'', pp. 5–6.</ref>

At the 1997 [[Centre culturel international de Cerisy-la-Salle|Cerisy Conference]], Derrida delivered a ten-hour address on the subject of "the autobiographical animal" entitled [[The Animal That Therefore I Am (More To Follow)]]. Engaging with questions surrounding the ontology of nonhuman animals, the ethics of animal slaughter and the difference between humans and other animals, the address has been seen as initiating a late "animal turn" in Derrida's philosophy, although Derrida himself has said that his interest in animals is present in his earliest writings.<ref>Derrida (2008), 15.</ref>