DOCSLIB.ORG

Heidegger and Derrida on Aristotle, Time and Metaphysics

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Heidegger and Derrida on Aristotle, Time and Metaphysics Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 1990 The Economy of Time: Heidegger and Derrida on Aristotle, Time and Metaphysics John Protevi Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Protevi, John, "The Economy of Time: Heidegger and Derrida on Aristotle, Time and Metaphysics" (1990). Dissertations. 3157. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/3157 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1990 John Protevi THE ECONOMY OF TIME: HEIDEGGER AND DERRIDA ON ARISTOTLE, TIME AND METAPHYSICS by JOHN LAWRENCE PROTEVI A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Loyola University of Chicago in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 1990 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank the members of my committee, John Sallis, William Ellos, Paul Davies, and Charles Scott for their encouragement, support and insight. I would also like to thank my teachers both at Loyola and at Penn State, especially Joseph Kockelmans, whose wisdom and dedication to philosophy continue to inspire those of us lucky enough to have met him. Furthermore, I acknowledge the help of many fellow students, especially George Matthews, Rich Findler, Dennis Keenan, Fred Luthardt and Eckhard Herych. Special thanks are due Lawrence Waxman for his friendship and brilliance. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their patience and my friend and partner Lilia Lubeznyj for her love. ii VITA The author, John Lawrence Protevi, is the son of John Joseph Protevi and Margaret Rose Sinnott Protevi. He was born April 16, 1955 in Landsdowne, Pennsylvania. He was educated in the Catholic and public schools of suburban Philadelphia; Rochester, New York; and Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. His high school was Wissahickon High School of Ambler, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1973. Mr. Protevi completed his undergraduate program in Philosophy at The Pennsylvania State University, receiving the Bachelor of Arts degree With Distinction in 1981. He then began graduate study in the English Department at The Pennsylvania State University, and was awarded the Master of Arts in American, British and Irish Literature in 1984. Upon completion of that program Mr. Protevi entered the Philosophy Department at The Pennsylvania State University and was awarded the Master of Arts in Philosophy in 1986. Mr. Protevi is the author of Multiple Metaphysics: Nietzschean Language of Power in Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, an MA thesis in English; et nova est inventio eorum: The Grounding of Metaphor in Augustine's Time Meditation, an MA thesis in Philosophy, both at The Pennsylvania State University. He is also the author of "The Stilling of the Aufhebung: Streit in the 'Origin of the Work of Art,·· Heidegger Studies, VI (1990): "Politics without Why: Acting at the End of Philosophy," Research in Phenomenology, XIX (1989); "Repeating the Parricide: Levinas and the Question of Closure,• Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, forthcoming (1992); and several reviews in The Review of Metaphysics and The Journal of the History of Philosophy. His translations of two Adriaan Peperzak articles are also forthcoming. iii CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . ii VITA . iii INTRODUCTION . 1 Notes . 13 CHAPTER I . 16 Introduction. 16 The Contexts of "Ousia and Gramme" . 20 Aristotle's Aporetic and Its History . 26 Differance . 32 'Time• and the Gramme . 36 The Conclusions of "Ousia and Gramme· . 40 Notes . 48 CHAPTER II . 54 Introduction. 54 The Formal Structure of the Sinnsfrage . 59 Heidegger's Inscription of Sinn . 62 The Introduction to Sein und Zeit . 62 The Existential Analytic . 73 iv The Temporal Recapitulation. 85 Vulgar and Primordial Time . 99 Notes . 103 CHAPTER Ill . 107 Introduction . 107 The Outline of the Course . 108 The Analysis of Aristotle's Text on Time......................... 110 Heidegger's Aufriss of Aristotle's Time Treatise . 114 Heidegger's Auslegung of Aristotle's Time Treatise. 119 Comparison of Heidegger and Derrida's Readings of Aristotle . 139 Conclusion: The Basic Problems of Phenomenology and the Epoch of Sein und Zeit . 140 Notes . 141 LIST OF WORKS CITED . 146 v John Lawrence Protevi Loyola University of Chicago THE ECONOMY OF TIME: HEIDEGGER AND DERRIDA ON ARISTOTLE, TIME AND METAPHYSICS This dissertation explores the main texts of Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida on the relation of the so-called "straight-line" theory of time to the so-called "metaphysical tradition." In Being and Time Heidegger states that a determination of Being as presence characterizes metaphysics and that such a determination of Being can be found in Aristotle's theory of time. Derrida examines how such a characterization of metaphysics affects Heidegger's project. Chapter I explores in detail how Derrida's essay "Ousia and Gramme" posits a "formal rule" that implies the "haunting" of time by space in any discourse that attempts to ground spatiality in temporality. Chapter II shows how the disseminative economy of Sinn in the Seinsfrage in Being and Time installs an irreducible spatiality in Heidegger's description of temporality, precisely as Derrida's "formal rule" had predicted. Chapter Ill concludes the dissertation by showing how Heidegger's extended treatment of Aristotle in The Basic Problems of Phenomenology also conforms to Derrida's "formal rule.• INTRODUCTION Space and time have always been among the primary topics for philosophical discussion. The classical treatments include Plato's Timaeus, Aristotle's Physics, Plotinus' Enneads, Augustine's Confessions, Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, Hegel's Encyclopedia, Bergson's Essay on the Immediate Givens of Consciousness, and Husserl's Phenomenology of Internal Time-Consciousness--in other words, works by virtually every major philosopher of the Western tradition. Besides the philosophic treatments, early modern science debated the status of space and time, the Leibniz-Clarke debate shaping consequent scientific discussions on the issue of the absoluteness of space and time. 1 Today, contemporary physics uses concepts of space/time, which analytic philosophy of science attempts to explain. 2 In the continental tradition, the twentieth-century talk of the end of philosophy has not lessened interest in space and time; if anything, it has increased it. Given such a huge tradition any dissertation on this topic can only hope to carve out a tiny area of expertise. I therefore restrict myself to examining some of the most important writings on time of the men I take to be two of the three most important European philosophers of our century-Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida. 3 Since the confrontation with the tradition has always been integral to their main task, I take up their readings of Aristotle's treatise on time in Physics 4.10- 14. The Heideggerian and Derridean texts examine the relation of the so-called "straight-line" theory of time to the so-called "metaphysical tradition.· I call the articulation of these discursive fields "the economy of time.· I take "economy" in the widest sense to mean "range of interpretative possibilities" for a word, concept, or text. These possibilities are governed by rules particular to each word, concept, or text. Yet this particularity is not so abstract as to prevent a minimal structural identity 2 that allows for intertextual grafting whereby a family resemblance of texts governed by the "same" set of rules can be recognized. These governing rules may be called an "economy" in a narrower sense. The feature of the economy of time upon which I focus in this dissertation is that an irreducible spatiality haunts the discourse of time. I display this feature by showing how any discourse on time contains terms that can also be Iterated in a discourse on space. Hence those terms are undecidably spatial/temporal. Such undecidability is the basis for the analogy of time and the line from which the "straight-line· theory of time gets Its name. Confronted with such undecidability, an author may attempt to settle the undecidability by determining a proper (temporal) and improper (spatial) sense for them, but such strategy fails in the discussion of time, for a determination of sense-or at least Heidegger's determinations--is caught in what I call the "question of sense.· In German, the "question of sense· would be the Sinnsfrage-a play on Heidegger's phrase "the question of Being· (the Seinsfrage). The economy of the Sinnsfrage Itself contains an irreducible spatial moment so that temporal discourse cannot be purified of spatial terms via a determination of proper sense, because "sense• is irreducibly spatial. To be more precise, the possibility of Iterating Sinn in a spatial context (i.e., a context other than that determined by Heidegger as properly temporal) cannot be reduced. Similarly, the infection of temporal discourse by terms capable of Iteration in spatial discourse cannot be controlled by appeal to the concept of "metaphor.· That is, language cannot be said to be dominated by spatial terms which function as metaphors for a properly intended temporal sense because "metaphor" is Itself a "metaphor" of "meta-pherein, • and thus contains an irreducible reference to spatial motion. For Its most basic argument, then, the dissertation relies on Derrida's related notions of "Iteration• and "dissemination.• As Derrida explains in "Signature Event Context" "Iteration" comes from the Sanskrit itara, meaning "other ...4 Iteration refers to the play of identity and difference in the repeated inscriptions of a mark. Each inscription--"iteration" -of a mark Is different from the other inscriptions yet maintains a minimal recognizability as an inscription of the same mark.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Ontotheology? Understanding Heidegger’S Destruktion of Metaphysics* Iain Thomson
    T E D U L G O E R · Internationa l Journal o f Philo sophical Studies Vol.8(3), 297–327; · T a p y u lo o r Gr & Fr ancis Ontotheology? Understanding Heidegger’s Destruktion of Metaphysics* Iain Thomson Abstract Heidegger’s Destruktion of the metaphysical tradition leads him to the view that all Western metaphysical systems make foundational claims best understood as ‘ontotheological’. Metaphysics establishes the conceptual parameters of intelligibility by ontologically grounding and theologically legitimating our changing historical sense of what is. By rst elucidating and then problematizing Heidegger’s claim that all Western metaphysics shares this ontotheological structure, I reconstruct the most important components of the original and provocative account of the history of metaphysics that Heidegger gives in support of his idiosyncratic understanding of metaphysics. Arguing that this historical narrative generates the critical force of Heidegger’s larger philosophical project (namely, his attempt to nd a path beyond our own nihilistic Nietzschean age), I conclude by briey showing how Heidegger’s return to the inception of Western metaphysics allows him to uncover two important aspects of Being’s pre-metaphysical phenomeno- logical self-manifestation, aspects which have long been buried beneath the metaphysical tradition but which are crucial to Heidegger’s attempt to move beyond our late-modern, Nietzschean impasse. Keywords: Heidegger; ontotheology; metaphysics; deconstruction; Nietzsche; nihilism Upon hearing the expression ‘ontotheology’, many philosophers start looking for the door. Those who do not may know that it was under the title of this ‘distasteful neologism’ (for which we have Kant to thank)1 that the later Heidegger elaborated his seemingly ruthless critique of Western metaphysics.
    [Show full text]
  • A Critique of the Metaphysics of Presence Peter Eisenman
    Lateness: A Critique of the Metaphysics of Presence Peter Eisenman Colin Rowe used to say that one of the problems with architectural thought was that it saw itself in a state of perpetual crisis. Always focusing on the latest problem or issue, architecture was said to obey a crisis mentality, an attitude partly fueled by nostalgia for an impossible avant-garde and partly by the received notion that archi- tecture was actually about solving problems. But as Rowe also would have said, permanent crisis is no crisis at all. For many historians, crisis is part of an historical cycle. In his book Krisis. Saggio sulla crisi del pensiero negativo da Nietzsche a Wittgenstein (1976), the philoso- pher Massimo Cacciari suggests that a crucial change had taken place in the way modernity was perceived. This rupture, he argued, was a "crisis of foundations," which signaled the end of classical rationality and dialectics in philosophy. He suggested that a crisis of dialectical problem of the limit; it projects the crisis of techniques synthesis in fact underlay the history of the modern already given." "The real problem is how to project a phase of contemporary development. Cacciari's crisis of criticism capable of putting itself into crisis by putting dialectical synthesis opens architecture to the synthetic into crisis the real." In his terms, the historical "project" project. In another interpretation, Manfredo Tafuri saw is an open discursive construct. Rather than producing a the idea of crisis as productive. Tafuri considered history linear narrative of history, the crisis provoked by criticism as a project of crisis, in that historical work, i.e.
    [Show full text]
  • Kierkegaard on Selfhood and Our Need for Others
    Kierkegaard on Selfhood and Our Need for Others 1. Kierkegaard in a Secular Age Scholars have devoted much attention lately to Kierkegaard’s views on personal identity and, in particular, to his account of selfhood.1 Central to this account is the idea that a self is not something we automatically are. It is rather something we must become. Thus, selfhood is a goal to realize or a project to undertake.2 To put the point another way, while we may already be selves in some sense, we have to work to become real, true, or “authentic” selves.3 The idea that authentic selfhood is a project is not unique to Kierkegaard. It is common fare in modern philosophy. Yet Kierkegaard distances himself from popular ways of thinking about the matter. He denies the view inherited from Rousseau that we can discover our true selves by consulting our innermost feelings, beliefs, and desires. He also rejects the idea developed by the German Romantics that we can invent our true selves in a burst of artistic or poetic creativity. In fact, according to Kierkegaard, becom- ing an authentic self is not something we can do on our own. If we are to succeed at the project, we must look beyond ourselves for assistance. In particular, Kierkegaard thinks, we must rely on God. For God alone can provide us with the content of our real identi- ties.4 A longstanding concern about Kierkegaard arises at this point. His account of au- thentic selfhood, like his accounts of so many concepts, is religious.
    [Show full text]
  • International Yearbook for Hermeneutics 17 · 2018
    International Yearbook for Hermeneutics 17 · 2018 International Yearbook for Hermeneutics Internationales Jahrbuch für Hermeneutik edited by Günter Figal and Bernhard Zimmermann in cooperation with Damir Barbaric´, Gottfried Boehm, Luca Crescenzi, Ingolf Dalferth, Nicholas Davey, Maurizio Ferraris, Jean Grondin, Pavel Kouba, Irmgard Männlein-Robert, Hideki Mine, Hans Ruin, John Sallis, Dennis Schmidt, Dirk Westerkamp 17 · 2018 Focus: Logos Schwerpunkt: Logos Mohr Siebeck Editorial directors / Redaktionsleitung: Dr. Tobias Keiling, PhD Dr. Anna Novokhatko Editorial team / Redaktion: Jon Burmeister Benjamin Harter Jerome Veith The Yearbook calls for contributions in English or German on topics in Philosophical Hermeneutics and bordering disciplines. Please send manuscripts to yearbook-he r m e n e u t i c s @altphil.uni-freiburg.de. All articles, except when invited, are subject to a double blind review. We assume that manuscripts are unpublished and have not been submitted for publi- cation elsewhere. Citations are to be made according to the style in the present volume. Detailed information on formatting manuscripts can be downloaded from: http://www.alt p h i l .uni-freiburg.de/IYH. Das Jahrbuch bittet um Zusendungen auf Deutsch oder Englisch zu Themen der Phil- osophischen Hermeneutik und angrenzender Disziplinen. Bitte senden Sie Manuskripte an: [email protected]. Alle Artikel, die nicht auf Einladung der Herausgeber verfasst worden sind, werden in einem double blind review-Verfahren begutachtet. Es wird davon ausgegangen, dass es sich bei eingereichten Manuskripten um un- veröffentlichte Originalbeiträge handelt, die nicht an anderer Stelle zur Veröffentlichung vorgelegt worden sind. Literaturhinweise bitte wie im vorliegenden Band. Ausführliche Hinweise für Manuskripte können unter http://www.altphil.uni-freiburg.de/IYH herun- tergeladen werden.
    [Show full text]
  • 52 Philosophy in a Dark Time: Martin Heidegger and the Third Reich
    52 Philosophy in a Dark Time: Martin Heidegger and the Third Reich TIMOTHY O’HAGAN Like Oscar Wilde I can resist everything except temptation. So when I re- ceived Anne Meylan’s tempting invitation to contribute to this Festschrift for Pascal Engel I accepted without hesitation, before I had time to think whether I had anything for the occasion. Finally I suggested to Anne the text of a pub- lic lecture which I delivered in 2008 and which I had shown to Pascal, who responded to it with his customary enthusiasm and barrage of papers of his own on similar topics. But when I re-read it, I realized that it had been written for the general public rather than the professional philosophers who would be likely to read this collection of essays. So what was I to do with it? I’ve decided to present it in two parts. In Part One I reproduce the original lecture, unchanged except for a few minor corrections. In Part Two I engage with a tiny fraction of the vast secondary literature which has built up over the years and which shows no sign of abating. 1. Part One: The 2008 Lecture Curtain-Raiser Let us start with two dates, 1927 and 1933. In 1927 Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf (volume II) was published. So too was Martin Heidegger’s magnum opus Being and Time. In 1933 two appointments were made: Hitler as Chancellor of the German Reich and Heidegger as Rector of Freiburg University. In 1927 it was a case of sheer coincidence; in 1933 the two events were closely linked.
    [Show full text]
  • Facing Nature: the Infinite in the Flesh
    Facing Nature: The Infinite in the Flesh Robert Daniel Victorin-Vangerud, B.A., M.Div. This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of. Murdoch University Perth, Western Australia 2004 I declare that this thesis is my own account of my research. ------------------------------------- Robert Daniel Victorin-Vangerud i Abstract “Facing Nature: The Infinite in the Flesh” by Robert Victorin-Vangerud This thesis explores the relation between two interpretations of chôra, drawn from a reading of Plato’s Timaeus. The first I label the elemental chôra. The second, I call the social chôra. The first chapter addresses the elements in Ionian philosophy, with an eye toward the political and social backdrop of the important cosmological notion of isonomia, law of equals. Here social and elemental are continuous. Chapter two looks at the next phase of Presocratic thought, Elea, specifically Parmenides and his influence on later thought, then turns to Heidegger’s reading of Parmenides’ through the key word of alêtheia. Finally, I offer a reading of Parmenides through a different key word— trust. The third chapter examines Plato’s cosmology in the Timaeus, focusing on the way the beginning of this dialogue inflects the dialogue in a political/social direction, putting the social chôra in tension with the elemental chôra that the body of the Timaeus’ discusses. In the fourth chapter, which examines the Phaedrus, this tension is inverted, since this dialogue on writing and justice set in what proves to be the mesmerizing and erotic elemental milieu of the world outside the walls of the polis. The second half of the dissertation turns to some modern thinkers within the phenomenological tradition or its wake who write about elementals.
    [Show full text]
  • Knowledge and Thought in Heidegger and Foucault: Towards an Epistemology of Ruptures Arun Anantheeswaran Iyer Marquette University
    Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Dissertations (2009 -) Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Projects Knowledge and Thought in Heidegger and Foucault: Towards an Epistemology of Ruptures Arun Anantheeswaran Iyer Marquette University Recommended Citation Iyer, Arun Anantheeswaran, "Knowledge and Thought in Heidegger and Foucault: Towards an Epistemology of Ruptures" (2011). Dissertations (2009 -). Paper 131. http://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/131 KNOWLEDGE AND THOUGHT IN HEIDEGGER AND FOUCAULT: TOWARDS AN EPISTEMOLOGY OF RUPTURES by Arun Iyer, B. E., M. A. A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Milwaukee, Wisconsin August 2011 ABSTRACT KNOWLEDGE AND THOUGHT IN HEIDEGGER AND FOUCAULT: TOWARDS AN EPISTEMOLOGY OF RUPTURES Arun Iyer, B.E., M.A. Marquette University, 2011 This dissertation shows how Martin Heidegger and Michel Foucault, by questioning the very understanding of the subject-object relationship on which all epistemology is grounded, challenge two of its most cherished beliefs: 1. Thought and knowledge are essentially activities on the part of the subject understood anthropologically or transcendentally. 2. The history of knowledge exhibits teleological progress towards a better and more comprehensive account of its objects. In contrast to traditional epistemology, both Heidegger and Foucault show how thought and knowledge are not just acts, which can be attributed to the subject but also events which elude any such subjective characterization. They also show us how the history of knowledge exhibits ruptures when the very character of knowledge undergoes drastic transformation in the course of history. The dissertation concludes by hinting at how these new accounts of thought and knowledge have the potential to shake the very foundations of epistemology and lead us to a new framework for discussing the most basic questions of epistemology, towards an epistemology of ruptures.
    [Show full text]
  • Martin Heidegger's Phenomenology and the Science of Mind
    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Master's Theses Graduate School 2005 Martin Heidegger's phenomenology and the science of mind Charles Dale Hollingsworth Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Hollingsworth, Charles Dale, "Martin Heidegger's phenomenology and the science of mind" (2005). LSU Master's Theses. 2713. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/2713 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Master's Theses by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MARTIN HEIDEGGER’S PHENOMENOLOGY AND THE SCIENCE OF MIND A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts In The Department of Philosophy by Charles Dale Hollingsworth B.A., Mississippi State University, 2003 May 2005 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract.......................................................................................iii Chapter 1 The Computational Model of Mind and its Critics..........1 2 One Attempt at a Heideggerean Approach to Cognitive Science...........................................................................14 3 Heidegger on Scientific
    [Show full text]
  • Kant, Hegel, Schelling, Nietzsche, and Heidegger
    German Philosophers: Kant, Hegel, Schelling, Nietzsche, and Heidegger Daniel Ferrer at Matrin Heidegger’s Todtnauberg haunt (Die Hütte, Rütte, Todtnauberg, Black Forest, Schwarzwald, Germany) By Daniel Fidel Ferrer 1 2011 Daniel Fidel Ferrer. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, digital, optical or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented; or otherwise without the prior permission in writing and signed by the author, Daniel Fidel Ferrer. Photo of Daniel Fidel Ferrer at Heidegger’s Todtnauberg haunt copyright ©Daniel Fidel Ferrer. Photo taken by Dr. Harald van Veghel with my 35 MM camera. Location: front page, title page. Die Hütte, Rütte, Todtnauberg, Black Forest, Schwarzwald, Germany, Deutschland. Some brief cataloging. Ferrer, Daniel Fidel (1952- ) German Philosophers: Kant, Hegel, Schelling, Nietzsche, and Heidegger Includes bibliographical references. Index. 1. Ontology. 2. Metaphysics. 3. Philosophy, German. 4.Thought and thinking. 5. Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804. 6. Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von, 1775-1854. 7. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831. 8. Philosphy, Asian. 9. Philosophy, Indic. 10. Philosophy, Modern -- 20th century. 11. Philosophy, Modern -- 19th century. 12. Practice (Philosophy). 13. Philosophy and civilization. 14. Postmodernism. 15. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900. 16. Heidegger, Martin, 1889-1976. -- 17. g r una nd cent. I. Ferrer, Daniel Fidel, 1952-. Dedication and Acknowledgements Family members. Families: Ferrer, Reavis, Kuhn, Lindstrom, Schmidt, and Yeager.
    [Show full text]
  • Postmodernist Gibberish: Derrida Dumbfounds the Positivists
    New York Journal of Sociology, 2008, Vol. 1, pp. 187-206 NY JS POSTMODERNIST GIBBERISH: DERRIDA DUMBFOUNDS THE POSITIVISTS Ben Agger University of Texas Arlington Jacques Derrida (1978), the enfant terrible of Continental philosophy who passed away recently, made many mad: analytical philosophers, positivists in the sciences and social sciences, the right, stupid people generally. That Derrida was brilliant is somewhat beside the point. What is on point is the way he read—texts and indeed the whole western philosophical tradition— aggressively, so much so that we could conclude that Derrida meant that reading is a form of writing. That is one of the main things I take away from his oeuvre. Another is that every text is ‘undecidable,’ that is, it cannot perfectly clarify and ex- haust its topic. This is because every definition needs to be defined, ad infi- nitum. There is no vantage outside of writing from which one can achieve that Archimedean insight about the truth or essence of the world. This rebut- tal of absolutism is extremely maddening to those who pretend apodictic knowledge, especially the gang we sometimes call positivists. To be sure, positivism died within physics by 1905, with Einstein’s first papers on the special theory of relativity. Newton was overthrown, except in the largely American social sciences, where it still prevails, even though there are challengers nibbling at the edges of the mainstream social-science disciplines. Newton only survives in sociology, political science, economics and parts of psychology. It is in these disciplines that Derrida is especially scandalous, although rear-guard actions are also being fought in English by those who dislike ‘the- ory’ and want the great books instead.
    [Show full text]
  • Looking for the Political Good: a “Friendly” Encounter Between Aristotle and Jacques Derrida
    Looking for the Political Good: A “Friendly” Encounter Between Aristotle and Jacques Derrida By Pamela Huber BA, MA A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy Department of Political Science Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario Canada © 2006 by Pamela Huber Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Library and Bibliotheque et Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-16669-7 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-16669-7 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce,Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve,sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet,distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform,et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation.
    [Show full text]
  • Derrida's Objection to the Metaphysical Tradition
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Scholarship@Claremont Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CMC Senior Theses CMC Student Scholarship 2015 Derrida's Objection To The etM aphysical Tradition Christopher A. Wheat Claremont McKenna College Recommended Citation Wheat, Christopher A., "Derrida's Objection To The eM taphysical Tradition" (2015). CMC Senior Theses. Paper 1188. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1188 This Open Access Senior Thesis is brought to you by Scholarship@Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in this collection by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Claremont McKenna College Derrida’s Objection to the Metaphysical Tradition Submitted to Prof. James Kreines And Dean Nicholas Warner By Christopher Wheat For Senior Thesis Spring 2015 4/27/15 Table of Contents: Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………2 Abstract………………………………………………………………………………..3 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………4 The Metaphysical Tradition…………………………………………………………...6 Derrida’s Objection…………………………………………………………………..16 Metaphysics Given the Abandonment of the Metaphysical Tradition………………26 Conclusion………………………………………………….………………………..31 Bibliography…………………………………………………………..……………..33 1 Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Professor Kreines for his generous assistance in my thesis and initial research of deconstruction, and for helping to nurture my interest in philosophy over the course of my college career. I would also like to thank Professor Rajczi, Professor Schroeder, Professor Kind, Professor Kincaid, and Professor Gaitskill. In addition to my professors, my friends and family have supported and influenced me in ways I could never begin to repay them for, and hope that this thesis is only a small reflection of what they have taught me. 2 Abstract Derrida’s deconstruction of the philosophic tradition shows us not only the importance of pursuit of knowledge, but also the importance of questioning the assumptions on which such a pursuit is based.
    [Show full text]