This article presents Reiner Schürmann's thought of anarchy through its relation to the thought of Martin Heidegger. The main aim of this article is to examine the relation between Schürmann's two major works, Heidegger on Being and Acting and Broken Hegemonies through their respective relation towards other authors in the continental philosophical tradition such as Jean-Luc Marion, Emmanuel Levinas, and Jacques Derrida. The article focuses furthermore on Schürmann's stress on the theme of the end of metaphysics and interrogates the ambiguities (...) surrounding this theme not only in Schürmann's works but also in the larger bulk of contemporary continental philosophy. (shrink)

In a brief comment in ‘History of the Lie’, his one sustained engagement with Arendt, Derrida criticizes the ‘absence’ of any reference to the ‘problematic of testimony, witnessing, or bearing witness’ in her work, and asserts that she was ‘not interested’ in what ‘distinguishes’ testimony from ‘proof’. This passage links Derrida’s reading of Arendt to a theme that concerns him throughout his later work, specifically the ‘affirmation’ or ‘act of faith’ that ostensibly conditions all human relations, and the possibility of (...) sociality in general. In this article, I claim not only that Arendt did address the problem of testimony or witnessing, and the difference between bearing witness and establishing proof, but also that her consideration of these issues represents an alternative to many of the arguments Derrida develops in his later work, especially his approach to responsibility and judgment, secrecy and memory, and the relation between the self and others. (shrink)