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Kant's 'Copernican Revolution' View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by South East Academic Libraries System (SEALS) A Logos of Difference: The Kantian Roots of Derrida’s Deconstructive Thinking Andrea Margaret Hurst Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Magister Artium in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Port Elizabeth. 8th January 1999 Supervisor Dr. Friedrich Paul Cilliers Co-Supervisor Prof. Bert Olivier Acknowledgements My thanks to Dr. Paul Cilliers who had enough faith in me to take on the responsibility of supervision at short notice, and whose clear, prompt and incisive comments helped prevent much paint from ‘ending up on the wall.’ I appreciate his willingness to share his own ‘work in progress’ where it converged with mine, and I hope this shall prove to be the beginning of a fruitful dialogue. I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Bert Olivier. Apart from a painstaking and thorough reading and criticism of the text of this dissertation, for which I cannot thank him enough, it was he who extended the ‘invitation to philosophy’ that I have not regretted accepting. He is a lover and teacher of philosophy whose enthusiasm for philosophy remains a constant source of inspiration. My thanks also for the interest and support of the friends in our reading circle – Djordje Djordjevic, Glenn Calverley, Bill and Sandy Blunt, Jonathan Holden, Ronnie Bowker, Catriona Brennan, Nathne Denis, and Narnia Bohler, who, in small and large ways, contributed to keeping philosophy alive and entertaining. Thanks also to Carol Christie and Paula Du Plooy whose view of me as exemplar in our common struggles to complete dissertations, gave me something I had to live up to. The financial assistance of the Centre for Science Development (HSRC, South Africa) towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at, are those of the author and are not necessarily to be attributed to the Centre for Science Development. Acknowledgement is also due to the University of Port Elizabeth for additional financial assistance in the form of a UPE Postgraduate Bursary (for Masters’ Degree Study). Table of Contents Introduction.........................................................................................1 1. The Problem of Limit and Possibility ................................................................... 1 2. An Outline of the Overall Argument .................................................................... 3 3. A Note on Methodology ....................................................................................... 11 Excursus ............................................................................................ 15 Part One: Kant’s ‘Copernican Revolution’ ........................................16 Chapter One: Preparing the Way for Kant’s ‘Copernican Revolution’................................... 16 1. The Problem With Defining ‘Reality’.................................................................. 16 2. ‘Reality’ and the Rationalist/Empiricist Dilemma............................................. 18 i. The Rationalist Standpoint...................................................................... 19 ii. Empiricism Against Rationalism ............................................................ 20 iii. Kant’s Evaluation of Rationalism........................................................... 21 iv. Kant’s Evaluation of Empiricism........................................................... 23 v. Kant’s Diagnosis of the Problem Underlying the Rationalist/Empiricist Dilemma............................................................. 26 Chapter Two: Kant’s ‘Copernican Revolution:’ ‘Reality’ as Always Already Interpreted ..... 28 1. The Aims of Kant’s ‘Copernican Revolution’.................................................... 28 2. Criticism of Kant’s Position (a Preview)............................................................. 32 3. The Framework of Kant’s ‘Copernican Revolution’......................................... 36 4. The Case of Dr. P................................................................................................... 46 5. ‘Closure’ and the ‘Metaphysics of Presence’....................................................... 50 6. Aristotle and Traditional Metaphysical ‘Projects of Truth’.............................. 54 Part Two: The ‘Linguistic Turn’.......................................................57 Chapter Three: Husserl and ‘Closure’ in the Temporal Sense..................................................... 57 1. Introduction: The ‘Linguistic Turn’..................................................................... 57 2. Husserl’s ‘Principle of Principles:’ Truth as Presence....................................... 60 3. ‘Being’ is ‘Being-for-Consciousness’.................................................................... 61 4. A Return to the ‘Things Themselves:’ The Phenomenological Method........ 65 5. Ideas Before Language: The Referential Model of Language.......................... 68 6. The Prioritisation of the Temporal in the Referential Model.......................... 71 7. Husserl’s Theory of Signification......................................................................... 72 Chapter Four: Derrida’s Deconstruction of Husserl’s Theory of Signification...................... 77 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 77 2. Husserl’s Failure to Reduce Spatiality.................................................................. 77 i. A Brief Overview...................................................................................... 77 ii. The Undermining of the Purity of (A)Temporal Presence in Husserl’s Phenomenology of Internal Time-Consciousness.............................. 80 iii. Undermining the Purity of Self-Presence (‘Pure’ Auto-Affection) ... 83 3. The Opening(s) of Différance in the Tensions and Aporias Created by Husserl’s Theory of Signification......................................................................... 87 i. ‘Indication’ and ‘Expression’................................................................... 87 ii. The Emergence of Différance and the Undermining of Presence in the Redundancy of the ‘Meaningful Sign’......................................... 91 4. Conclusion............................................................................................................... 93 Chapter Five: Saussure and a ‘Spatial’ Corrective to Husserl’s ‘Temporal Closure’.............. 95 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 95 2. To Mean is Not to Be: the Unity of Signifier and Signified............................. 96 3. There is Nothing Outside of the Text...............................................................100 4. Arbitrariness and The Problem of ‘Truth’........................................................103 5. The Ambivalence of Saussure: Derrida’s Deconstruction .............................105 i. Saussure’s Paradoxical Reduction and Denunciation of Writing.....105 ii. Difficulties Associated With Saussure’s Privileging of Speech Over Writing............................................................................................106 iii. The Independence of Language From Speech...................................107 iv. The Independence of Language From Sound....................................109 6. A Way Out of the Tangle: Saussure’s ‘Thesis of Difference’.........................110 7. Kant’s Space Analysis: Implications of the Rejection of a Temporal (Etymological) Model of Language in Favour of a Spatial Model. ...............111 8. A Spatial’ or ‘Differential’ Conception of Signification..................................112 9. Conclusion: The Question of Truth ..................................................................117 Chapter Six: Structure/‘Structurality’ and the Limit/Possibility Problematic Again ........118 1. Introduction ..........................................................................................................118 i. Two ‘Interpretations of Interpretation:’ Structuralism and Postmodernism .......................................................................................120 ii. Structure and ‘Structurality:’ Derrida’s Definition of Structure .......120 2. Structuralism..........................................................................................................121 3. A Rupture in the ‘Structure:’ Derrida’s Critique of Structuralism.................124 4. Différance: Recognising Structurality ...................................................................126 i. The Semantic Analysis Subtending Derrida’s Choice of the Neologism ‘Différance’ .............................................................................130 ii. Difference: ‘The Becoming-Space of Time’ .......................................131 iii. Deferral: The Becoming-Time of Space..............................................132 iv. Difference and Deferral: ‘Form’-as-Différance .....................................133 5. Postmodernism and Deconstructive Thinking ................................................135 i. ‘Freeplay’ Postmodernism .....................................................................135 ii. Deconstructive Thinking Against ‘Freeplay:’ Derrida’s Refusal to Choose......................................................................................................138
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