Abstract

Starting from the Derridean statement that deconstruction applies above all to institutional structures, the essay provides the terms for a critical comparison, deriving it essentially from the examination of three crucial moments in the French thinker’s work: the discussion of the notion of context and its relationship with the phenomenon of performativity; the Foucault-Derrida debate in the hermeneutics of the Cartesian Cogito; finally, the question of the “mystical foundation of authority” on which, according to the philosopher of El-Biar, every law and every institution would be based.