In general, I try and distinguish between what one calls the Future and lavenir [the to come]. The future is that which tomorrow, later, next century will be. There is a future which is predictable, programmed, scheduled, foreseeable. But there is a future, lavenir (to come) which refers to someone who comes whose arrival is totally unexpected. For me, that is the real future. That which is totally unpredictable. The Other who comes without my being able to anticipate their arrival. So if there is a real future, beyond the other known future, it is lavenir in that it is the coming of the Other when I am completely unable to foresee their arrival.

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About Jacques Derrida

Jacques Derrida was a 20th-century French philosopher. Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, and which was developed through close readings of the linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and Husserlian and Heideggerian phenomenology. Read more on Wikipedia →

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  • Philosophy — Deep thoughts on existence, knowledge, and the nature of reality

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