Citation

de Vela-Santos RR. J. Pragmat. 2011; 43(9): 2337-2359.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.pragma.2010.10.032

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The article explores the matter of Benedictine or monastic silence in relation to the possibility and irrepressible force of justice as deconstruction, particularly as it relates to the limits or the justification of law and language. The possibility of a fertile consideration is suggested or signaled by the phrase "silence walled up, walled in" used by Derrida to refer to law's mystical authority in his widely known "Force of Law: The 'Mystical Foundation of Authority"' (1990) and it is proposed that deconstruction as justice has to do with its being made known as silence because when deconstruction takes place what is to be found, sensed or discerned is the silence of ruins. Inasmuch as silence wrought by deconstruction is the silence of ruins and the outcome of violence, the silence prayed for by Saint Benedict is the anticipation, appeasement or forestalling of deconstruction or else the sacrifice of mortal will that might otherwise bring about speech or discourse that is susceptible to deconstruction. Furthermore, the matter (i.e. the relevance and meaning) of Benedictine silence has profound implications for the prospect of authentic being, freedom or sovereignty, as well as the possibility of discovering law and language as verging on divine.