Abstract

This thesis attempts to explicate the central role of general economy in the philosophy of Jacques Derrida. At stake in this 'concept' is a double movement that is always at play in Derrida's work. This double movement results from the relation of general economy to the restricted economies that it makes possible. General economy represents both the irreducible movement of differentiation underlying all metaphysics, which both allows for metaphysics while exploding its perceived limits, as well as the strategy for thinking that this movement necessarily implies in the thinking of restricted economies. Although Derrida explicitly discusses general economy only early in his work. I argue that this 'concept' remains active in all of his later thought. Thus the explication of general economy serves not only to elucidate his early deconstruction of the metaphysics of presence, but also provides a better understanding of the importance of this earlier deconstruction to his later work, particularly his more explicitly ethical and political work. To show this, I examine two later moments in Derrida's work: his thinking of the gift and his work on Marx. The quasi-transcendental idea of the gift can be better understood as general economy, which then allows the strategy of general economy to elucidate the ethical implications that Derrida derives from the gift. Similarly, general economy helps clarify Derrida's radicalization of Marx by allowing for the double movement of a deconstruction of Marx's metaphysics that at the same time remains critical of the restricted logic of capitalism