Madness and the law

In 'Force of law' Derrida describes justice as 'without reason and without theoretical rationality, in the sense of regulating mastery'. Central to Derrida's concerns is Foucault's claim to write the archaeology of the silence imposed on madness through the division between madness and reason. Derrida points out that the concept of madness is never submitted to thematic scrutiny by Foucault. Madness is moreover not simply exterior to philosophy as Foucault contends, especially after Descartes. The certainty of the cogito is attained not by containing or interning madness, but by asserting itself in the midst of madness. Derrida's contention in 'Cogito' could be summarised by saying that Foucault's archaeology of the silence of madness, which exposes the distinction between reason and its other which is excluded, finds itself positioned within a broader framework which operates on the basis of a more radical exclusion.