| In the dissertation that follows I endeavour to defend three interrelated theses: first, that the structure of experience articulated in the work of Jacques Derrida is, despite appearances to the contrary, an agential conception of experience; second, that this deconstructive structure of agency is distinctly Abrahamic, implying, by extension, that deconstruction is historical; third, as a corollary to the former thesis, that this deconstructive agency cannot be traced back to the ancient Greek tradition. I do not, in this study, endeavour simply to re-assert the models of agency that Derrida has sought properly to deconstruct, but rather to conceive an agency that is consistent with a deconstructive model of experience. Indeed, I argue that it is agency itself which bears the structure that Derrida attributes to experience more generally, meaning that it is both agency which is deconstructed and agency which does the deconstructing. Agency deconstructs agency. The distinctly Abrahamic conception of agency that I contend deconstruction herein repeats is the conception of agency that comes to be thematized in the often misunderstood theological doctrine of creation ex nihilo. .;I undertake to defend these claims by engaging in a comparative analysis of Greek, Abrahamic, and Derridean thought. In Part I, I outline the Derridean conception of "experience," a structure he claims to find in both the Greek and the Abrahamic traditions. In Part II, I consider more closely Derrida's relationship to Greek thought by attempting to refute his analyses of Plato and by putting forward an alternate conception of experience---what I call the "continuum of opposition"---that is not deconstructive and which, I argue, structures the thought of both Plato and Homer. In Part III, I take up the relationship of Derrida's thought to Abrahamic agency, considering first his negative view of creation ex nihilo. Second, using critical biblical scholarship, I endeavour to show how the historical emergence of Israelite monotheism gives rise to and transpires according to a conception of agency that is deconstructive. Finally, I show, through a detailed reading of Augustine, how this deconstructive conception of experience is thematized in the doctrine of creation ex nihilo.. |
