Madness at the basis of knowledge : the heresy of Jean-Luc Marion

The article addresses the development of Jean-Luc Marion’s phenomenology in one of his last book entitled Certitudes négatives. If negativity has always been present in the phenomenology of giveness through parallels with negative theology, the second term of the title addresses a Cartesian notion - the certitude of distinct and clear knowledge. Negativity that appears in late Marion is being interpreted as a gesture of compromise towards thinkers claiming the death of the subject and the triumph of the other in its otherness and, as such, it will be read as a new point in Marion’s discussion with Derrida about the gift . Challenging negative certitude Marion exposes himself to a heterodoxical dialogue with other authors of the French Th eory about knowledge, faith and fi ction all entangled around certainty.