Jeffrey T. Cockrum, Pacific Lutheran University
When considering approaches to ethics and ethical choice, their distinctive characteristic is the universal emphasis of violence as the result choices made by someone as they relate to the Other. Jacques Derrida is also concerned with ethics and ethical choice, though I claim that he posits violence not as the measurable result of choice but as the condition for the possibility of ethical choice. In this paper, I explore this assertion and argue that his claim concerning violence is responsible to the reality of violence, making it a valid understanding of ethical relations. I conclude this paper with an examination of this ethic, arguing that it is practical when attempting to understand everyday relations with the Other.