Singularity and the Commandment: Another Form of Law

Abstract: In this essay I look at how Samuel Weber helps to explain Benjamin’s reading of the commandment “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” His concept of singularity helps to explain how for Benjamin, each time one encounters this commandment, it must be as if for the first time and each time, one may well come up with a different response. This understanding of how singularity functions helps more generally to understand how one can approach decisions and judgments, both individually and collectively in ways that avoid merely reprising presupposed solutions and determinations, how, that is, one can act freely and anarchistically.