Derrida Quote by Benoît Peeters
““Avital Ronell – a committed vegetarian – relates that one day, at a dinner with Chantal and René Major, she let one dish go by without taking a helping, which caused a certain embarrassment. When she said she had perfectly decent philosophical reasons for not eating meat, Derrida turned to ask her what they were. So Avital told him what it meant to her to incorporate the body of the other. Shortly afterwards, Derrida, who was extraordinarily receptive to this kind of thing, started to speak of carnophallogocentrism rather than phallogocentrism. Later on, with me and in front of me, he said he was a vegetarian. But one day, someone told me he had eaten a steak tartare, as carnivorous a kind of food as you can get. For me, it was as if he had betrayed me. When I spoke to him about it, he initially said I was behaving like a cop. Then he said, neatly: ‘I’m a vegetarian who sometimes eats meat.””
About This Quote
Source Interview: Conversation with Avital Ronell, date unknown
A philosopher’s personal dietary choices become a site of ethical debate, revealing tensions between theory and practice and the fluidity of identity.
In simple terms: Personal choices can clash with philosophical ideals, exposing contradictions.
Key Takeaway
Examine how your actions align with your stated values.
Themes
ethics
identity
philosophy
food
contradiction
Mood
reflective
critical
Type
anecdotal
philosophical
When to use this quote
- academic dinner
- personal confession
- public discourse
Key Concepts
carnophallogocentrism
vegetarianism
authenticity
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you reconcile personal habits with public principles?
- When does flexibility become betrayal?
A Different Perspective
Critique may oversimplify complex lived ethics.
![“I now have at home, I can freely admit, three computers and two of then also have a zip drive, an extra hard disk [. . .] and when I write a long text that’s hanging around without being printed out, I never leave the house without making copies of the text in question [. . .]. There are at least…” quote by Benoît Peeters](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/38a/beno-t-peeters-15866_computers_i-now-have-at-home-i-can-freely-admit-th_513159.jpg)
