The Politics of Implementing Post-Gender Ethics: Beyond Idealism/Realism

Here I mean to consider how the ethical ideal that I broadly outlined in the previous chapter may be applied. It is a central tenet of deconstruction that all ‘saying’ (the context) must be done within the language of the ‘Said’ (which must, to an extent, assume universal meaning and understanding). In this respect, Critchley suggests that for philosophers who critique the assumption of an autonomous self, a central problem is: ‘How is the saying, my exposure to the Other, to be Said, or given a philosophical exposition that does not utterly betray this saying?’ (Critchley 1999: 7). This is the theme of this chapter, that there often has to be an engagement with discourses or behaviours that are at odds with our ideal ethics because of the ontological necessity to act.