Kierkegaard and Derrida: from Existential Mimesis to Mimesis Proper

Wojciech Kaftanski

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Chapter 8 Kierkegaard and Derrida: from Existential Mimesis to Mimesis Proper

In: Kierkegaard in France: A History of Reception and Influence

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Wojciech Kaftanski

Wojciech Kaftanski
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 175–199

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004732933_010

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Abstract

This chapter traces Kierkegaard’s influence on Derrida’s formulation of the concept of mimesis. This hitherto unexplored subject in a comparative study of Kierkegaard and Derrida offers readers an insight into a remarkable affinity between the thinkers regarding their unique reading of mimesis. Derrida adopts Kierkegaard’s philosophical method of breaking down concepts and ascribing new meanings to them that account for the dynamic nature of human existence. This is reflected in the way Derrida plays with words and concepts in his attempt to grasp what he calls the pharmakon, namely, the dual nature of mimesis. While Kierkegaard presents mimesis in an indirect way according to his ‘dialectic of inversion’ and situates its proper function in the complexities of human existence, Derrida’s etymological investigations present mimesis slipping out of categorizations that are often situated in frameworks of conceptual antinomies. Both thinkers engage the concept mimesis to reevaluate the copy. For Kierkegaard, the idea of the copy is critical to our understanding that all humans are created in the image of God; for Derrida the copy is the only ‘thing’ we have access to, a trace of the ideal that is inaccessible to us.

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Kierkegaard in France: A History of Reception and Influence

Series: New Research in the History of Western Philosophy, Volume: 10

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004732933

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 17 Oct 2025

Subjects
- Philosophy
  - Philosophy of Religion
- Religious Studies
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Chapter 8 Kierkegaard and Derrida: from Existential Mimesis to Mimesis Proper

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Kierkegaard in France: A History of Reception and Influence

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