The aim of this thesis is to situate Derridian deconstruction along side Zen Buddhism in order to accomplish two things. The first is to illuminate a sense of the ethical in Derridian discourse. The sense of the ethical found in Derrida marks a radical departure from the conventional conception of normative ethics found in Kant and others. Understood in light of Levinas' work on ethics, Derrida's deconstructive ethics offers a new way of engaging in relations with the other. Second, by situating the “methodology” of Derridian deconstruction, now understood as a deconstructive ethics, with Zen encounter dialogues, Derrida's notion of “democracy to come” is relocated in a more global context, freeing his “promise of democracy” from its Eurocentric place in Derrida's work.
