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Participation, Mystery, and Metaxy in the Texts of Plato and Derrida

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Participation, Mystery, and Metaxy in the Texts of Plato and Derrida PARTICIPATION, MYSTERY, AND METAXY IN THE TEXTS OF PLATO AND DERRIDA by Travis Michael DiRuzza A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the California Institute of Integral Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the DeGree of Master of Philosophy in Philosophy and Religion with a concentration in Philosophy, CosmoloGy, and Consciousness California Institute of Integral Studies San Francisco, CA 2015 CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL I certify that I have read PARTICIPATION, MYSTERY, AND METAXY IN THE TEXTS OF PLATO AND DERRIDA by Travis Michael DiRuzza, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approvinG a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the deGree of Master of Philosophy in Philosophy and Religion with a concentration in Philosophy, CosmoloGy, and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies. ____________________________________________ Steven Goodman, PhD, Chair Professor, Asian Comparative Studies ____________________________________________ Jacob Sherman, PhD Associate Professor, Philosophy and ReliGion © 2015 Travis Michael DiRuzza Travis Michael DiRuzza California Institute of Integral Studies, 2015 Steven Goodman, PhD, Committee Chair PARTICIPATION, MYSTERY, AND METAXY IN THE TEXTS OF PLATO AND DERRIDA ABSTRACT This thesis explores Derrida’s enGaGement with Plato, primarily in the texts “How to Avoid SpeakinG: Denials” and On the Name. The themes of participation and performance are focused on through an analysis of the concepts of mystery and metaxy (μεταξύ). The crucial performative aspects of Plato and Derrida’s texts are often under appreciated. Neither author simply says what he means; rather their texts are meant to do somethinG to the reader that surpasses what could be accomplished throuGh straiGhtforward readinG comprehension. This enacted dimension of the text underscores a participatory worldview that is not just intellectually formulated, but performed by the text in a way that draws the reader into an event of participation—instead of its mere contemplation. On this basis, I propose a closer alliance between these authors’ projects than has been traditionally considered. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ........................................................................................................................... iv I). Introduction to the Topic ..................................................................................... 1 Areas of Inquiry..................................................................................................... 1 Some Historical Background ........................................................................... 5 Antiquity .................................................................................................... 5 Modernity .................................................................................................. 10 Postmodernity ......................................................................................... 13 The Way Forward is the Way Back ................................................ 15 II). Introduction to Analysis: Literature Review ……..................................... 19 Schematization of Secondary Literature................................................... 20 Derrida and Plato are both Metaphysical .................................... 21 Derrida is Metaphysical and Plato is Literary ........................... 24 Derrida is Literary and Plato is Metaphysical ........................... 30 Derrida and Plato are both Literary .............................................. 33 Significance........................................................................................................... 35 Chapter One: Plato………............................................................................................. 38 1.1: Symposium .................................................................................................. 45 1.2: Iamblichus and Plotinus ......................................................................... 60 1.3: Phaedo ……………........................................................................................ 69 Chapter Two: Derrida ................................................................................................ 95 2.1: On the Other................................................................................................. 98 v 2.2: Derrida and Marion: On God ............................................................... 115 2.3: On the Self …................................................................................................ 134 Chapter Three: Plato and Derrida ....................................................................... 143 3.1: Republic ....................................................................................................... 144 3.2: Timaeus ....................................................................................................... 162 3.3: Sophist ......................................................................................................... 186 3.4: How to Avoid Speaking: Denials ........................................................ 196 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 218 References ...................................................................................................................... 234 vi I). Introduction to the Topic In order to describe it you have to face it.1 – James Baldwin This thesis explores Derrida’s enGaGement with Plato, focusinG on the themes of participation and performance throuGh an analysis of the concepts of mystery and metaxy (μεταξύ). Incomplete understandinGs arise when readers overlook the performative aspects of Plato and Derrida’s texts, taking their words as simply constative. Neither author simply says what he means; rather their texts are meant to do somethinG to the reader that surpasses what could be accomplished throuGh straiGhtforward readinG comprehension. This enacted dimension of the text underscores a participatory worldview that is not just intellectually formulated, but performed by the text in a way that draws the reader into an event of participation—rather than its mere contemplation. On this basis, I propose a closer alliance between these authors’ projects than has been traditionally considered. Areas of Inquiry In his essay, “How to Avoid Speaking: Denials,” Derrida brings attention to the term triton genos (τρίτον γένος, third genre or kind) and its use in three Platonic dialogues: (1) light in the Republic’s analogy of the Sun is called triton genos, as well as (2) khora (χώρα, space or interval) in the Timaeus, and (3) the einai (εἶναι, being) or the “is” that can be said of both 1 Baldwin, “Interview – pt. 1,” 5:08. 1 terms in any pair of oppositions in the Sophist—each is described as a “third kind,” somethinG in-between, which relates two opposite poles. A close readinG of the moments in question supports Derrida’s agenda of disrupting binary metaphysical schema, but also shows how Plato was a conspirator in such an agenda all along. Derrida’s enemy is not Plato but Platonism: Platonism is certainly one of the effects of the text signed by Plato, for a long time the dominant effect and for necessary reasons, but this effect is always found upon return to be contrary to the text.2 By highlighting such a counter-Platonist readinG of Plato, much of the enmity between he and Derrida is dissolved (though certainly not all of it). The texts above set the scene for an examination of (1) textual content that refers to participation, as well as (2) formal structurinG and performative textual practices that embody that content, elicitinG (3) a participatory experience between reader and text that models participation in the world.3 The hackneyed Plato of a static, two-tiered world gives way to the participatory Plato who theorizes the contrast between the mystery of an ineffable beyond and the immediacy of the sensible present in order to make room for the metaxy, the in-between, the triton genos. Plato’s two worlds become two sides of a coin: Pure forms without a sensual world would be 2 Derrida, Khora, 81–82, quoted in Zuckert, Postmodern Platos, 239. 3 My use of the term “participation” is never the classic Platonic version (methexis [μέθεξις]) in which instantiations of a form participate in the form itself; e.G. all beautiful thinGs, to the deGree of their beauty, participate in the eternal form of the Beautiful). My use of “participation” is actually closer to the original Greek meaninG of μέθεξις, which pertained to Greek theatre, where the audience participates, creates and improvises the action of a ritual. See “methexis” in the Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy . 2 empty, while the senses without forms would be blind to any order.4 The transcendence of the forms acts as a kind of lure, quickeninG the soul in a metaxic dance between the two poles. By showing us Plato in a new light, Derrida helps us remember the Plato for whom “wonder is where philosophy begins and nowhere else,” and that such wonder in fact never ceases.5 This alliance brings out the ways in which Derrida’s enGaGement is neither deflationary nor self-defeating, but rather creatively unfolds what has become calcified, brinGinG forth concealed dimensions of Plato’s texts through its interrogations. Derrida’s triptych On the Name, for which “How to Avoid Speaking” is a kind of introduction, will be the other main
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