ABSTRACT. This study attempts to investigate the problem of responsibility as stated by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his essay ‘Passions: “An Oblique Offering.”’ Having rejected the previously postulated notions of responsibility, Derrida ventures into positing his own peculiar framing of the concept of responsibility by offering the concept of the secret, which makes it resolve the binary opposition of obligation and free will in responding to, say, an invitation. However, the article argues that to resolve the problem of responsibility, Derrida has recourse to Platonic Forms through the concept of the secret. To work through the secret, a ritualistic ceremony is needed to unfold the relationship between the subject and the other and to be held responsible in this way demands approaching the secret of the other indirectly or offering oneself obliquely. It is in this way that the secret unfolds its conception of responding and responsibility.

Keywords: passions; oblique offering; responsibility; the secret

How to cite: Gharehaghaji, H. S. (2023). Resolving the passion of responsibility through the secret. Knowledge Cultures, 11(2), 76–91. https://doi.org/10.22381/kc11220235

Received 9 November 2022 • Received in revised form 6 June 2023
Accepted 27 July 2023 • Available online 1 August 2023