Philosophiam profiteri or on Derrida's "declarative engagement"

In this paper the author reconstructs the meaning of Derrida's concept of "declarative engagement". He shows that Derrida revives the modern idea of the "engaged intellectual" and even develops it in a radical, prophetic/messianic form. The final consequence of such a position, in the opinion of the author, is a paradoxical coupling of political decisionism with social escapism, which renews in a specific way the nostalgia for the "heroic role" of the Marxist intellectual vanguard. This is a major reason for Derrida's popularity in Serbia, it is argued, but can also be taken as the starting point for an analysis of the problem of responsibility of engaged intellectuals.