DOCSLIB.ORG

Understanding Poststructuralism Understanding Movements in Modern Thought Series Editor: Jack Reynolds

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Understanding Poststructuralism Understanding Movements in Modern Thought Series Editor: Jack Reynolds understanding poststructuralism Understanding Movements in Modern Thought Series Editor: Jack Reynolds Th is series provides short, accessible and lively introductions to the major schools, movements and traditions in philosophy and the history of ideas since the beginning of the Enlightenment. All books in the series are written for undergraduates meeting the subject for the fi rst time. Published Understanding Existentialism Understanding Virtue Ethics Jack Reynolds Stan van Hooft Understanding Poststructuralism James Williams Forthcoming titles include Understanding Empiricism Understanding Hermeneutics Robert Meyers Lawrence Schmidt Understanding Ethics Understanding Naturalism Tim Chappell Jack Ritchie Understanding Feminism Understanding Phenomenology Peta Bowden and Jane Mummery David Cerbone Understanding German Idealism Understanding Rationalism Will Dudley Charlie Heunemann Understanding Hegelianism Understanding Utilitarianism Robert Sinnerbrink Tim Mulgan understanding poststructuralism James Williams For Richard and Olive It is always about who you learn from. © James Williams, 2005 Th is book is copyright under the Berne Convention. No reproduction without permission. All rights reserved. First published in 2005 by Acumen Acumen Publishing Limited 15a Lewins Yard East Street Chesham Bucks HP5 1HQ www.acumenpublishing.co.uk ISBN 1-84465-032-4 (hardcover) ISBN 1-84465-033-2 (paperback) Work on Chapter 3 was supported by British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Designed and typeset in Garamond by Kate Williams, Swansea. Printed and bound in Malta by Gutenberg Press. Contents Acknowledgements vii Abbreviations ix 1 Introduction: What is poststructuralism? 1 2 Poststructuralism as deconstruction: 25 Jacques Derrida’s Of Grammatology 3 Poststructuralism as philosophy of diff erence: 53 Gilles Deleuze’s Diff erence and Repetition 4 Poststructuralism as philosophy of the event: 79 Lyotard’s Discours, fi gure 5 Poststructuralism, history, genealogy: 105 Michel Foucault’s Th e Archaeology of Knowledge 6 Poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, linguistics: 133 Julia Kristeva’s Revolution in Poetic Language 7 Poststructuralism into the future 153 Questions for discussion and revision 167 Further reading 171 Publications timeline 174 Index 177 contents v Acknowledgements I should like to thank Th e Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland for its generous funding for research in Paris libraries. La Bibliothèque du Saulchoir, Paris, provided a stimulating research environment and a wonderful research resource. Work on Chapter 3 was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Material from Chapter 3 was presented at the Experimenting with Intensities Conference (May 2004) at Trent University, Canada, with travel funded by the British Acad- emy, and at the Writing/History: Deleuzian Events Conference (June 2005) at the University of Cologne. Chapter 4 was presented in part at the Department of Political Science, Carleton University, Canada. I am grateful for their support and very useful feedback. Chapter 1 was presented at the Graduate Visiting Speaker Series, Department of English Literature, University of Edinburgh. Parts of this book were also presented at the Research Seminar in the Philosophy Department, University of Dundee. Th e University of Dundee funded sabbatical leave for this project. Kurt Brandhorst, Claire Colebrook, Nicholas Davey, John Drummond, Penny Fielding, Lily Forrester, Rachel Jones, Beth Lord, Valentine Moulard, Aislinn O’Donnell, Keith Ansell Pear- son, John Protevi, Dan Smith, Michael Wheeler, Frédéric Worms and many others challenged and helped me in conversations and through their research. At Acumen Steven Gerrard, Tristan Palmer and Kate Williams made this a much better book through their careful editorial advice. My undergraduate and postgraduate classes and tutees gave me the opportunity to try out many parts of this work in a sympathetic but critical environment. Th ey prompted ideas in ways that can never be acknowledgements vii traced fully, but that are the lifeblood of academic work. I am grateful to all friends, students and colleagues for their comments and help, but claim all errors and imprecision as mine all mine. A work owes more than could ever be quantifi ed to the time, love and spaces that others make for it, should anyone be foolish or crude enough to try. In all of these, my immeasurable debts are to you, Claire. viii understanding poststructuralism Abbreviations AK Foucault, Th e Archaeology of Knowledge (London: Routledge, 1989). D Derrida, “Diff érance”, in Margins of Philosophy, A. Bass (trans.), 1–28 (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1984). DR Deleuze, Diff erence and Repetition, P. Patton (trans.) (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995). DF Lyotard, Discours, fi gure (Paris: Klincksieck, 1971). HRS Deleuze, “How do we Recognize Structuralism”, in Desert Islands and Other Texts (1953–1974), M. Taormina (trans.), 170–92 (New York: Semiotext(e), 2003). OG Derrida, Of Grammatology, G. C. Spivak (trans.) (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974). PS Deleuze, Proust and Signs, R. Howard (trans.) (London: Con- tinuum, 2000). RPL Kristeva, Revolution in Poetic Language, M. Waller (trans.) (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984). TD Lyotard, Th e Diff erend: Phrases in Dispute (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1988). WPU Deleuze, “What Prisoners want from Us”, in Desert Islands and Other Texts (1953–1974), M. Taormina (trans.), 204–5 (New York: Semiotext(e), 2003). abbreviations ix one Introduction: what is poststructuralism? Limits and knowledge Poststructuralism is the name for a movement in philosophy that began in the 1960s. It remains an infl uence not only in philosophy, but also in a wider set of subjects, including literature, politics, art, cultural criti- cisms, history and sociology. Th is infl uence is controversial because poststructuralism is oft en seen as a dissenting position, for example, with respect to the sciences and to established moral values. Th e movement is best summed up by its component thinkers. Th ere- fore, this book seeks to explain it through a critical study of fi ve of the most important works by fi ve of the movement’s most important think- ers (Derrida, Deleuze, Lyotard, Foucault and Kristeva). Th e principle aim is to respond to two powerful criticisms of poststructuralism: fi rst, that it is wilfully and irretrievably diffi cult; secondly, that it takes on positions that are marginal, inconsistent and impossible to maintain. Th e fi rst idea that allows for an answer to these points is that the limits of knowledge play an unavoidable role at its core. Th is is the common thread running through poststructuralism. It explains why structural- ism had to be added to, since the structuralist project can be summed up as arriving at secure knowledge through the charting of diff erences within structures. According to poststructuralists, this security missed the troubling and productive roles of limits folded back into the struc- ture. Knowledge cannot escape its limits: “It is not surrounded, but traversed by its limit, marked in its inside by the multiple furrows of its margin” (D: 25). introduction: what is poststructuralism? 1 So “limit” is not used in a specialist sense here, for example, in math- ematical terms, or as the upper or lower limits of measurable quantities. Instead, it indicates relative security and stability within a given envi- ronment, where the boundaries are seen as less dependable than the centre. For poststructuralism, the core is not more reliable, signifi cant and better known than its limits or outer boundaries. Th is is because the clear distinction of core and limit is not possible. Th e criticism of this distinction takes poststructuralism well beyond structuralist views, even though the former owes much to the latter. Structuralist knowledge is open to change when the observed structures change. However, despite this openness to change, in noting a repeated pattern of signs the structuralist scientist hopes to arrive at some secure understanding. For example, in charting the repeated patterns of daily life (wake–work–eat–sleep) we can begin to understand the relations between each element (their order and place). Th ere could be limits to such patterns (sleep–sleep–play–sleep) but these would be exceptional moves away from a normal pattern. Th e idea is that knowledge should start with the norm and only then consider the exception. Th e norm implies a deviation in the defi nition of the exception. If there is an ethical and political side to this distinction, it is that truth and the good are in the norm, although many disagreements are possible as to what makes the norm. Poststructuralism folds the limit back on to the core of knowledge and on to our settled understanding of the true and the good. It does this in a very radical way. Th at is, the limit is not compared with the core, or balanced with it, or given some kind of tempering role, in the sense, for example, of a majority listening to minorities. Rather, the claim is that the limit is the core. What does this strange claim mean? It means that any settled form of knowledge or moral good is made by its limits and cannot be defi ned independently of them. It means also that any exclusion of these limits is impossible. Limits are the truth of the core and any truths that deny this are illusory or false. Th e truth of a population is where it is chang- ing. Th e truth of a nation is at its borders. Th e truth of the mind is in its limit cases. But is the defi nition of a limit not dependent on the notion of a prior core? You only know that sleep–sleep–sleep–drink is deviant because of the dominance of wake–work–eat–sleep. No; the autono- mous defi nition of the limit is the next most important common thread in poststructuralism. Th e limit is not defi ned in opposition to the core; it is a positive thing in its own right.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Fourth Perspective: Evolution and Organismal Agency
    The Fourth Perspective: Evolution and Organismal Agency Johannes Jaeger Complexity Science Hub (CSH), Vienna, Josefstädter Straße 39, 1080 Vienna Abstract This chapter examines the deep connections between biological organization, agency, and evolution by natural selection. Using Griesemer’s account of the re- producer, I argue that the basic unit of evolution is not a genetic replicator, but a complex hierarchical life cycle. Understanding the self-maintaining and self-pro- liferating properties of evolvable reproducers requires an organizational account of ontogenesis and reproduction. This leads us to an extended and disambiguated set of minimal conditions for evolution by natural selection—including revised or new principles of heredity, variation, and ontogenesis. More importantly, the con- tinuous maintenance of biological organization within and across generations im- plies that all evolvable systems are agents, or contain agents among their parts. This means that we ought to take agency seriously—to better understand the con- cept and its role in explaining biological phenomena—if we aim to obtain an or- ganismic theory of evolution in the original spirit of Darwin’s struggle for exis- tence. This kind of understanding must rely on an agential perspective on evolu- tion, complementing and succeeding existing structural, functional, and processual approaches. I sketch a tentative outline of such an agential perspective, and present a survey of methodological and conceptual challenges that will have to be overcome if we are to properly implement it. 1. Introduction There are two fundamentally different ways to interpret Darwinian evolutionary theory. Charles Darwin’s original framework grounds the process of evolution on 2 the individual’s struggle for existence (Darwin, 1859).
    [Show full text]
  • Perceptual Variation and Structuralism
    NOUSˆ 54:2 (2020) 290–326 doi: 10.1111/nous.12245 Perceptual Variation and Structuralism JOHN MORRISON Barnard College, Columbia University Abstract I use an old challenge to motivate a new view. The old challenge is due to variation in our perceptions of secondary qualities. The challenge is to say whose percep- tions are accurate. The new view is about how we manage to perceive secondary qualities, and thus manage to perceive them accurately or inaccurately. I call it perceptual structuralism. I first introduce the challenge and point out drawbacks with traditional responses. I spend the rest of the paper motivating and defending a structuralist response. While I focus on color, both the challenge and the view generalize to the other secondary qualities. 1. Perceptual Variation Our perceptual experiences tell us that lemons are yellow and sour. It’s natural to infer that lemons really are yellow and sour. But perceptions vary, even among ordinary observers. Some perceive lemons as slightly greener and sweeter. This gives rise to a challenge that forces us to rethink the nature of perception and the objectivity of what we perceive. For concreteness, I’ll focus on the perceptions of two ordinary observers, Miriam and Aaron. I’ll also focus on their perceptions of a particular lemon’s color. These restrictions will make the challenge easier to understand and the responses easier to compare. But the challenge and responses are perfectly general. Toward the end of the paper I’ll return to sourness and the other secondary qualities. When Miriam and Aaron look at the same lemon, their perceptions differ.
    [Show full text]
  • Biogenetic Structuralism'
    'BIOGE~TIC STRUCTURALISM'STRUCTURALISM" AND THE LOCATION OF STRUCTURES*STRUCTURES~'< In the heyday of 'high' structuralism it was sometimes argued, explicitly or implicitly, that the ultimate 'explanation' of cultural structures was to be found in the properties of 'the human mind'. This argument, it was perhaps felt, shifted the problem of explanation to the realm 'of philosophr, which many anthropologists considered outsiqe their concern. It was not surprising, therefore, that $ceptics ofaof, a more materialist persuasionpersuas'ion would critiofze structuralist analysis for being an essentially idea11stormentalistidealJtst or mentalist undertaking.undertakirig. Even so, the analytical value, of the notion of structures (in the Levi-Straussian sense,'hasbeen increasingly recognized, even by anthro­ pologists of a materialistmateria~ist stance (e.g. in the 'structural marx.i;sm'marx,j;sm' of MauriceNaurice Godelier (1973) and JonathanJonatl1an Friedman (1974),(1974)1 to the extent that nowadays only the most ardent 'vul¢ar'vul$ar materialists' feel they can do without it. This devefopment has not, however, done away with the problem of t~e locatiori of structures; the problem has only been push~d into the background, because other problems were.were felt: by most to be of more immediate concern. , .' ~ptwhether~f.lt'whether or not we have been bothered by the location problelflproblelf1 we should all welcome the pioneering work of two auth'prl;j,auth'prl;l, Charles Laughlin, an anthropologist, and Eugene d' Aqui!i, ~ psych~atrist, in which they lay the foundations " of aneW structural approach, 'biogenetic structuralism'. In the introduction to the book they state: !~ f f ., Th~majorTh~rnajor onttllbgical-:assumptiononttJlbgical-:assumption upon which biogenetic str\.ibturalismstr~bturalism is founded is that there exists no reality intervening between the central nervous system and the environment.
    [Show full text]
  • Derrida's Open and Its Closure: the Aporia of Différance and the Only
    Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies (LLIDS) ISSN: 2547-0044 http://ellids.com/archives/2018/09/2.1-Wu.pdf CC Attribution-No Derivatives 4.0 International License www.ellids.com Derrida’s Open and Its Closure: The Aporia of Différance and the Only Logic of Thinking Mengxue Wu “…for an opening is relative to a ‘surrounding plenitude.’”1 “The gallery is the labyrinth which includes in itself its own exits: we have never come upon it as upon a particular case of experience—that which Husserl believes he is describing.”2 Metaphysics—the entire history of metaphysics has been considered as the metaphysics of presence—is closed; it is closed like a dead end. In its “surrounding plenitude” no exit can be found and it is meeting its own death. Though a system of philosophy with incompleteness is not a perfect theory, but the rebuke of how comprehensive and close a philosophy is and the demand of that philosophy to open its house to the alien and the ungraspable would be a preposterous importunity. However, upon the stage where the entire history of Western philosophy has been played, “…nothing is staged or displayed theatrically. Rather, the battle of the new gods against the old is being fought” (Heidegger 22). This battle, between the new gods and the old, between the new thoughts and the old, is a battle of breaking into new ruptures and finding new openings in the old thoughts. At the moment when traditional philosophy has become a closure of the metaphysics of presence, even those streams of thought that already broke new phenomenological grounds in the beginning of twentieth century and Levinas’s ethical breaking are closed “as the self-presence in absolute knowledge” (Derrida 102, SP).
    [Show full text]
  • Hegelian Phenomenology and the Critique of Reason and Society Peter Osborne
    Hegelian Phenomenology and the Critique of Reason and Society Peter Osborne Abhot Terrasson has rema~cked that if the size of a volume be measured not by the number of its pages but by the time required for mastering it, it can be said of many a book, that it would be much shorter if it were not so short. (Kant, Preface'to First Edition, Critique of Pure Reason) Gillian Qnse's Hegel Contra Sociology (Athlone Press, of Hegel's thought which focuses on the socio­ 1981, £6.95 pb, 26lpp) would be much shorter were it political significance of his idea of speculative not so short. It is unashamedly, and sadly, an experience. extremely difficult book; not just in terms of the The argument is that Marx's critique of Hegel is complexity and subtlety of the position it puts for­ based on a Fichtean reading of his system which fails ward, but, primarily, in terms of the way in which to grasp the true meaning of his concepts of actual­ this position is presented. But it is, nonetheless, ity and spirit, and that in fact these concepts pro­ in many ways an important book. For it challenges, vide the theoretical basis for the conceptualisation at a fundamental level, the generally accepted frame­ of the subjective mediations of objective social work within which Hegel has been interpreted; and, forms. Marx's own conception of practical material­ in so doing, it challenges accepted beliefs not only ism is seen as theoretically incapable of.conceptual­ about the relationship between Marx and Hegel, but ising such mediations, since it involv~s abstract also about the philosophical adequacy of Marxism and dichotomies between being and consciousness, and the redundancy of Hegelianism.
    [Show full text]
  • Heidegger and the Hermeneutics of the Body
    International Journal of Gender and Women’s Studies June 2015, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 16-25 ISSN: 2333-6021 (Print), 2333-603X (Online) Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. Published by American Research Institute for Policy Development DOI: 10.15640/ijgws.v3n1p3 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.15640/ijgws.v3n1p3 Heidegger and the Hermeneutics of the Body Jesus Adrian Escudero1 Abstract Phenomenology, Feminist Studies and Ecologism have accused Heidegger repeatedly for not having taken into account the phenomenon of the body. Without denying the validity of such critiques, the present article focuses its attention first on the question of Dasein’s neutrality and asexuality. Then it analyzes Heidegger’s remarks on temporality as the horizon of all meaning, paying special attention to its significance for Butler’s notion of performativity. Keywords: body, Dasein, gesture, performativity, temporality In Being and Time we find only one reference to corporeality in the context of Heidegger’s analysis of spatiality. Therefore, his analysis of human existence is often accused of forgetting about the body. This criticism has particular force in the field of French phenomenology. Alphonse de Waehlens, for instance, lamented the absence of the fundamental role that the body and perception play in our everyday understanding of things. Jean-Paul Sartre expanded upon this line of criticism by emphasizing the importance of the body as the first point of contact that human beings establish with their world. However, in the context of the first generation of French phenomenologists, Maurice Merleau-Ponty was undoubtedly the first whose systematic analysis of bodily perception established the basis for a revision of Heidegger’s understanding of human life (Askay, 1999: 29-35).
    [Show full text]
  • 5 Derrida's Critique of Husserl and the Philosophy
    5 DERRIDA’S CRITIQUE OF HUSSERL AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF PRESENCE David B. Allison* Now would be the time to reject the myths of inductivity and of the Wesenschau, which are transmitted, as points of honor, from generation to generation. ...Am I primitively the power to contemplate, a pure look which fixes the things in their temporal and local place and the essences in an invisible heaven; am I this ray of knowing that would have to 1 arise from nowhere? SÍNTESE – O autor reexamina a crítica de Derrida ABSTRACT – The author reexamines Derrida’s à fenomenologia de Husserl de forma a mostrar critique of Husserl’s phenomenology, so as to como a sua coerência estrutural emerge não show how its structural coherency arises not so tanto de uma redução a uma doutrina particular, much from the reduction to a particular doctrine, mas antes das exigências de uma concepção but rather from the demands of a unitary concep- unitária, especificamente impostas pelas deter- tion, specifically from the demands imposed by minações epistemológicas e metafísicas da the epistemological and metaphysical determina- presença. tions of presence. PALAVRAS-CHAVE – Desconstrução. Derrida. KEY WORDS – Deconstruction. Derrida. Husserl. Fenomenologia. Husserl. Presença. Significado. Meaning. Phenomenology. Presence. * Doutor. Professor, State University of New York, Stony Brook, EUA. 1 Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Le Visible et l’invisible (Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1964), Eng. tr., Alphonso Lingis, The Visible and the Invisible (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1968). pp. 113-116. VERITAS Porto Alegre v. 50 n. 1 Março 2005 p. 89-99 It is practically a truism to say that most of Husserl’s commentators have in- sisted on the rigorously systematic character of his writings.
    [Show full text]
  • Temporality and Historicality of Dasein at Martin Heidegger
    Sincronía ISSN: 1562-384X [email protected] Universidad de Guadalajara México Temporality and historicality of dasein at martin heidegger. Javorská, Andrea Temporality and historicality of dasein at martin heidegger. Sincronía, no. 69, 2016 Universidad de Guadalajara, México Available in: https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=513852378011 This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. PDF generated from XML JATS4R by Redalyc Project academic non-profit, developed under the open access initiative Filosofía Temporality and historicality of dasein at martin heidegger. Andrea Javorská [email protected] Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Eslovaquia Abstract: Analysis of Heidegger's work around historicity as an ontological problem through the existential analytic of Being Dasein. It seeks to find the significant structure of temporality represented by the historicity of Dasein. Keywords: Heidegger, Existentialism, Dasein, Temporality. Resumen: Análisis de la obra de Heidegger en tornoa la historicidad como problema ontológico a través de la analítica existencial del Ser Dasein. Se pretende encontrar la estructura significativa de temporalidad representada por la historicidad del Dasein. Palabras clave: Heidegger, Existencialismo, Dasein, Temporalidad. Sincronía, no. 69, 2016 Universidad de Guadalajara, México Martin Heidegger and his fundamental ontology shows that the question Received: 03 August 2015 Revised: 28 August 2015 of history belongs among the most fundamental questions of human Accepted:
    [Show full text]
  • Schelling: Understanding German Idealism
    SCHELLING Understanding German Idealism ◊ by Michael Tsarion Copyright ©2016 Unslaved Media. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the publisher's permission. First Kindle Edition, July 2016 DEDICATIONS This book is dedicated to the memory of Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Eduard von Hartmann, Jacob Bohme, Meister Eckhart, Nicholas Cusanus, George Berkeley, William Blake, Rudolf Steiner, Wilhelm Reich, Gustave Le Bon, Ayn Rand, Alvin Boyd Kuhn and Otto Rank. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To Chris for technical support. To Bryan Magee. To Alan for being a good teacher way back then. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1. The Problem of Idealism 2. Back to the Mirror 3. The Freedom of Man 4. The Existential Trinity 5. The Fall of Albion 6. Nothing Higher Than Beauty 7. The Absolute Idealism of Hegel About Author INTRODUCTION Great things are done when men and mountains meet – William Blake I first began studying academic philosophy at a community college in Belfast in 1987. Although I did not take the classes to matriculate, my interest in Western philosophy, which had always been sincere, was enhanced considerably. We were fortunate to have a captivating tutor, a very rare thing in Northern Ireland in those days. Unlike ordinary school we were permitted to wear our own clothes rather than uniforms and even allowed to go about the college smoking. It was a barely bearable experience, but mission accomplished I activated my little grey cells and learned many interesting things.
    [Show full text]
  • The Science of Writing
    The Science of Writing Introduction In 1967 the French philosopher, Jacques Derrida, published in book form a collection of texts he had been composing, under the title De la Grammatologie, Of Grammatology.1 The book was translated into English in 1974 by Gayatri Spivak and, with its one-hundred-page translator’s introduction, constituted the first major introduction to Derrida for English-speaking audiences. In 1985 an American professor of English Literature, Gregory Ulmer, published his engagement with Derrida under the title, Applied Grammatology: Post(e) Pedagogy from Jacques Derrida to Joseph Beuys.2 Ulmer’s investigation is one of the very few instances where Derrida’s mention of ‘grammatology’ is taken up at length. In July 2008, at the Derrida Today conference held at the University of Sydney, in Australia, the French Derrida scholar, Catherine Malabou, presented a key note address that probed the fate of Derrida’s notion of ‘grammatology’ and how its question might be re-engaged or re-invented today.3 By ‘grammatology,’ Derrida inferred a ‘science of writing,’ though an approach to the question of writing that radically engages with the question of science, of truth and of knowing. And if Ulmer activates the question posed by grammatology, it is in order to question a scene of teaching the radically questions writing as such. This paper aims at asking if the work of Derrida and Ulmer has continued relevance for a radicalising of the scene of teaching precisely by a critical engagement with what we commonly name as writing and what we commonly understand as its agency.
    [Show full text]
  • Hegel and Chinese Marxism
    DOI: 10.4312/as.2019.7.1.55-73 55 Hegel and Chinese Marxism Tom ROCKMORE*1 Abstract China is presently embarking on the huge task of realizing what President Xi Jinping recently called the Chinese Dream. China is officially Marxist, and Marx thus inspires this dream in his assigned status as the “official guide” to the ongoing Chinese Revolution. This paper will focus on the crucial relation between Hegel and Chinese Marxism. Marx is a key Hegelian, critical of, but strongly dependent on, Hegel. Since the Chinese Dream is not Hegelian, but rather anti-Hegelian, it is unlikely, as I will be arguing, to be realized in a recognizably Marxian form. Keywords: Hegel, China, Marxism, Marx, Engels Hegel in kitajski marksizem Izvleček Kitajska se podaja na pot uresničitve projekta, ki ga je predsednik Xi Jinping pred kratkim imenoval »kitajske sanje«. Kitajska je uradno marksistična in Marx zaradi statusa »urad- nega vodiča« sedanje kitajske revolucije, ki so mu ga pripisali, navdihuje te sanje. Članek se bo osredotočil na ključno razmerje med Heglom in kitajskim marksizmom. Marx je ključni hegelianec, ki do Hegla ni le kritičen, ampak je tudi odvisen od njega. »Kitajske sanje« pa niso hegelianske, temveč prej antihegelianske, zato je, kot bo razloženo, malo verjetno, da se bodo uresničile v prepoznavno marksistični obliki. Ključne besede: Hegel, Kitajska, Marxism, Marx, Engels * Tom ROCKMORE, Department of Philosophy, Peking University, China. Email address: rockmore[at]duq.edu AS_2019_1_FINAL.indd 55 31.1.2019 10:48:34 56 Tom ROCKMORE: Hegel and Chinese Marxism On the Relation of Marx and Hegel Marx’s followers as well as his critics tend to approach him through Marxism.
    [Show full text]
  • Sociosemiotics and Metalanguage: the Case of Translanguaging Linguistic Frontiers
    Linguistic Frontiers • 3(2) • 57—65 • 2020 DOI: 10.2478/lf-2020-0015 Linguistic Frontiers Sociosemiotics and Metalanguage: The Case of Translanguaging Original Study Anti Randviir Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu, Estonia. Received: July 2020 ; Accepted: September 2020 Abstract: The age of transdiscipinarity has brought along the fading of boundaries between disciplines. This has engaged both the fusion of metalanguages that are used for the description of cultures and sign-proce- sses, and the launch of novel proposals for metalinguistic vocabularies. In the case of the study of culture, communication and sign-processes, it is natural that all such developments are connected with the paradigm of semiotics. At times the relevant metalinguistic and methodological proposals challenge traditional semiotic vocabulary, methods and methodological truths. This has brought along the need to recall the semiotic roots of the study of semiosis and communication, and to review transdisciplinary metalanguage in order to avoid possible misinterpretations or unnecessary repetitions of the established agreements in the paradigm of se- miotics as a possible ground for transdisciplinary study of human interaction and cultural processes. Howe- ver, besides occasional theoretical confusion, the spread of the semiotic methodology and vocabulary across applied scholarship has enriched semiotics in its faculties of field studies. Keywords : sociosemiotics, metalanguage, transdisciplinarity, modality, multimodality, mediality, coding, semiosis, modelling, translanguaging. Contemporary scholarship has, both in the domain of studies were founded. Secondly, it is useful to recall the humanities and social sciences, as also in the so-called proximity of interdisciplinary studies and interdisciplinary hard sciences, passed a fairly clear transition from mono- education as proposed by American pragmatism.
    [Show full text]