Resolving the Passion of Responsibility through the Secret
Resolving the Passion of Responsibility through the Secret

Summary/Abstract: This study attempts to investigate the problem of responsibility as stated by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his essay ‘Passions: “An Oblique Offering.”’ Having rejected the previously postulated notions of responsibility, Derrida ventures into positing his own peculiar framing of the concept of responsibility by offering the concept of the secret, which makes it resolve the binary opposition of obligation and free will in responding to, say, an invitation. However, the article argues that to resolve the problem of responsibility, Derrida has recourse to Platonic Forms through the concept of the secret. To work through the secret, a ritualistic ceremony is needed to unfold the relationship between the subject and the other and to be held responsible in this way demands approaching the secret of the other indirectly or offering oneself obliquely. It is in this way that the secret unfolds its conception of responding and responsibility.

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