February 22, 1943

Terry Eagleton (February 22, 1943) is an Irish-British writer, what they call there a "public intellectual." The phrase 'public intellectual' means there is an audience of people interested in questions involving the nature of reality and this is the case in England. In our secular times this concern often comes through in a guise such as literary theory, and in this Eagleton is typical.

A brief glance at his writing includes these titles:

Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983)
The Ideology of the Aesthetic (1990)
The Illusions of Postmodernism (1996)
and, 
Trouble with Strangers: A Study of Ethics (2011).

In this last book we read:

The Derridean conflict between absolute singularity and universal responsibility...is a false dilemma. The fact that in feeding my own cat (Derrida's own solemnly ludicrous example in The Gift of Death) I am inevitably neglecting all the other needy cats in the world is not, as Derrida considers, a matter of culpability....I can only reasonably feel guilt over actions...for which I am culpable. I cannot feed all the cats on the planet, not with the best will in the world and a fleet of trucks laden with minced liver....There is enough genuine occasions for guilt in the world without Parisian intellectuals concocting a few bogus additions....

Had Eagleton understood Derrida his own argument would be persuasive. In fact Eagleton has not grasped Derrida's point.  Derrida was not singling out cats, Derrida was singling out words--- verbal reality, the limits of language. And hinting at how the non-verbal can yet inform.  

At least though Terry Eagleton is interested in ideas, and engages worthy opponents.