Donner l'amour: Le don et le sacrifice chez Derrida et Patočka

In Donner la mort, Jacques Derrida conceives moral responsibility as always characterized by unsolvable aporias. His interpretation of Patočka’s Heretical Essays is meant to underscore this analysis. I would like to show, however, firstly, that Derrida’s reading of Patočka is problematic, because, in Patočka’s view responsibility does not rest on a gift of death but on a gift of love. Patočka’s conception of sacrifice is also different from Derrida’s. I try to demonstrate, secondly, how Patočka’s phenomenology provides a better understanding of gift, sacrifice and responsibility than Derrida’s approach can offer.