Morin's Ecology of Ideas and Derrida's Limitrophy: (Re-)Envisioning a Post-Human Ethics

Despite the myriad of differences between Edgar Morin and Jacques Derrida, this essay demonstrates that both thinkers expose the dangers of lingering, anthropocentric, binary logic in the modern world. Specifically, Morin and Derrida posit that various types of pervasive dichotomous thinking that run counter to contemporary scientific erudition are currently preventing global society from formulating a meaningful response to the impending environmental crisis. Indeed, one of the most salient features of Morin's ecology of ideas and Derrida's exercise in limitrophy is the deconstruction of simplistic dichotomies that conceal the richness and complexity of reality. In his encyclopedic, wide-ranging philosophy spanning several decades, Morin expresses a profound mistrust related to any philosophical position that is predicated upon the shaky edifi ce of binaries. It is in this sense in which Morin's notion of "complex thought" that he has been honing for more than half a century should be understood.