La mort et le génie de la langue

This paper addresses the difficulty of understanding one’s own mortality. It begins by examining the characterization of death as a “pure question mark” (Levinas) to show that the epistemic position that this implies is untenable for the beings of language that we are. It defends the idea that our discursive relationship to death is strictly limited to commentary. In other words, that which is impossible to verify, to observe and to measure, but is also impossible to remain silent about, can only be commented upon, discussed indefinitely.