The Undecidable Decision : From the Deconstruction of History to the Undeconstructible Justice

This dissertation proposes a transversal reading of Jacques Derrida's work focusing on the notion of undecidability. The objective is primarily to bring out this notion in a mainly epistemological dimension, starting from his first works on the philosophy of history, i.e. as dealing with the problems of the truthfulness of the historical narrative. Then, the idea is to trace a logical continuity with the later, practice-oriented interests of deconstruction, of which the Derridian idea of a messianic justice without messianism becomes the conceptual limit. By extrapolating on the condition of undecidability of a decision that would meet this criterion of justice, we attempt to establish a precise narrative of Derridian work, while orienting it on its contemporary issues. Key words: Derrida, decision, undecidability, justice, history, deconstruction, theory, practice, responsibility, archi-system, trace