David A. White Derrida on Being as Presence David A. White Derrida on Being as Presence Questions and Quests Managing Editor: Anna Michalska ISBN 978-3-11-054013-0 e- ISBN 978-3-11-054033-8 ISBN EPUB 978-3-11-054014-7 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. © 2017 David A. White Published by De Gruyter Open Ltd, Warsaw/Berlin Part of Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston The book is published with open access at www.degruyter.com. Managing Editor: Anna Michalska www.degruyteropen.com Cover illustration: © firebrandphotography There are few things that we phrase properly; most things we phrase badly: but what we are trying to say is understood. Augustine, The Confessions, Book XI, Section XX ...the sentiment that words were acts and acts were steps in life.... Henry James, The American For last year’s words belong to last year’s language And next year’s words await another voice. T. S. Eliot, “Little Gidding” from Four Quartets Contents Preface XIII Abbreviations XVI Part I: Presence and the History of Metaphysics 1 Being as Presence: Systemic Considerations 2 1.1 Principles of Interpretation: Procedures and Scope 2 1.2 Derrida’s Narrational Strategy 4 1.3 The Deployment of Presence 5 1.3.1 Truth and Language 5 1.3.2 Presence and the History of Metaphysics 6 1.3.3 Presence and Difference 10 1.4 Presence: Linearity and Process 10 1.5 Presence and the Metaphysics of Form 12 1.6 Being as Presence–the “Subjective” Turn 14 1.6.1 Presence, Form, Consciousness 14 1.6.2 Modulated Possibilities 17 1.7 The “Transcendental Signified” 19 1.8 Particularity 22 1.9 Presence and the Principle of Identity 23 1.10 Presence and Différance 25 1.10.1 Sameness and Invariance 25 1.10.2 Form and Opposition 30 1.11 Presence, the History of Metaphysics, Closure 30 1.12 Summary: In Quest of Being as Presence 32 2 Presence and the Question of Evidence 34 2.1 Being as Presence: The Possibility of Demonstration 34 2.2 Form, Presence and Evidence 36 2.3 Form and Presence: Along the Gamut of Exhibition 38 2.4 Plato’s Phaedo: Form and Experience 39 2.5 Formality: Appearance and Visibility 40 2.6 Formality: Presence and “Sight as eidos” 41 2.7 Presence and the Autonomy of Platonic Forms 42 2.8 Plato, Presence, Particularity 44 2.9 Formality and Essence 45 2.10 Plato and the Possibility of Presence 47 2.11 Formality: Plato, Aristotle, Presence 49 2.12 Formality and Presence–Question and Quest 50 3 Being as Presence: Transcendental Dimensions 54 3.1 A Transcendental Strategy 54 3.2 Form and Consciousness 57 3.3 Relationality: Presence and Contrast 59 3.4 Intersectionality: Presence, Sameness, Difference 60 3.5 Directionality: Presence on the Move 65 3.6 Being as Presence: Structure, Questions, Quests 67 3.6.1 Foundational Elements 67 3.6.2 Structural Factors 67 3.7 Difference, Différance, Deconstruction 82 3.8 Being as Presence and Logic 83 3.9 Summary and Provisional Conclusion 86 Part II: The Aggregations of Language 4 Signification:Meaning and Referentiality 90 4.1 The Question of Language: Introduction 90 4.2 Setting the (Linguistic) Scene.... 92 4.3 Language: Signification and the Possibility of Meaning 93 4.4 The Transcendental Factor 94 4.5 Presence: Evidence and “the other” 96 4.6 Presence and Opposition 97 4.7 Presence and the Origin of Metaphysics 98 4.8 Opposition, Language, Signification 99 4.9 The Unity of Language 99 4.10 Language, Logic, Presence 101 4.11 Reasoning to the Roots of Language 103 4.11.1 Language–Questions and Observations 104 4.11.2 Writing–Questions and Observations 105 4.12 Sign: Self-reference and the Signified 108 4.13 Signification and Opposition:the Sensible and the Intelligible 111 4.14 Signification and the History of Metaphysics 116 4.15 Referentiality and Signification–the Question of Stability 118 4.16 Summary and Prospect 122 5 Context and Concept 126 5.1 The Question of Contexts 126 5.2 Concepts: A Presentation of Context 129 5.3 Différance and Conceptuality 130 5.4 Concepts and Presence 131 5.5 The Structure of Chains 133 5.5.1 Self-identity 134 5.5.2 Relationality 135 5.5.3 Concepts and Otherness 135 5.5.4 Principles of Gathering 136 5.5.5 Différance and the Origin of Concepts 136 5.5.6 The Extension of the Transcendental 137 5.6 Chains and Referentiality 138 5.7 Chains and Signification 138 5.8 Chains: the Interplay of Unity and Limit 140 5.9 Deconstruction and the Question of Unity 142 5.10 Différance, Chains and Possibility 143 5.10.1 Novelty 143 5.10.2 History 144 5.10.3 Givenness 144 5.10.4 Logic 144 5.10.5 Transcendental Dimension 145 5.11 Chains and Contexts Revisited 145 5.11.1 Metaphysical Assumptions for the Promulgation of Chains 145 5.11.2 Chains and Contexts–Isomorphic Assumptions 147 5.11.3 Concepts and Contexts–the Challenge of Inclusive Preconditions 148 5.12 Summary 150 6 Traces of Negation 153 6.1 Différance and Language 153 6.2 Signification and Différance 154 6.3 Trace, Temporality, Negation 157 6.3.1 The Patrimony of Trace 158 6.3.2 Temporality 159 6.3.3 The Question of Negation 160 6.3.4 Trace, Presence, Negation 162 6.3.5 The Factor of Sameness 163 6.4 The Duality of Interval 164 6.5 Interval and Unity 166 6.6 Interval: Division of the Present and Beyond... 167 6.7 Division: Words and Objects 168 6.7.1 Language and Concepts 169 6.7.2 Space, Time, Transcendentality 170 6.8 The Question of Individuation 172 6.9 Trace: the Transcendental Character of Possibility 174 6.10 Summary 175 7 Iterability 177 7.1 Iterability and Presence–The Transcendental Mirror 177 7.2 Derrida on Possibility and Necessity: A Critical Review 179 7.3 Iterability and Absence: the Question of Negation 183 7.4 Iterability and the Possibility of Parody 187 7.5 Possibility and the Concept of Supplement 191 7.6 The “Logic of Supplementarity” 193 7.6.1 Supplementarity: Logical Structure 193 7.6.2 Supplementarity and Metaphysics 199 7.6.3 Supplementarity and Possibility 201 7.7 Derrida and the Fact of Writing 203 7.8 Iterability: Singularity and Self-identity 206 7.8.1 Repetition and Singularity 207 7.8.2 Sign and the Structure of Repetition 209 7.8.3 Ideality 216 7.9 Iterability: The Deconstructive Account vs. the Metaphysical Account 216 7.9.1 Language and Immediacy 217 7.9.2 The Conceptual Realm 218 7.9.3 Particularity 219 7.9.4 Self-identity 221 7.10 Iterability: A Transcendental Snapshot 222 7.11 Summary and Prospect 223 Part III: Presence, Language, Metaphysics 8 The Foundation of Deconstruction: Generalities at Play 228 8.1 Dimensions of Totality 228 8.2 Convergent Totalities: An Isomorphic Play 233 8.3 “Formal” Entities and the Texts of Deconstruction 235 8.3.1 Unity 236 8.3.2 Sameness as Self-identity 238 8.3.3 Difference 243 8.4 The Clash of Isomorphic Totalities 246 8.5 Self-reference: Deconstruction and Interpretive Limits 248 8.6 The Integrity of Deconstruction 250 8.6.1 Internal Inconsistency 251 8.6.2 External Inconsistency 252 8.6.3 Being as Presence and Deconstruction: The Question of Priority 253 8.7 Deconstruction, Presence and the Play of Consequences 254 8.7.1 The Ontologizing of Language 255 8.7.2 Particularity, Signification, Concepts 257 8.7.3 Opposition 258 8.7.4 Logic, Self-reference and the Rise of the Rhetorical 262 8.7.5 The Primacy of Difference 263 8.8 Deconstruction and “Making a Difference” 266 9 The Deconstruction of Deconstruction: Prelude to a Metaphysics 269 9.1 Derrida’s Truth 270 9.2 “As we speak....” 271 9.3 Deconstruction and the Margins of Self-reference 272 9.4 The Possibility of Stability 273 9.5 Presence, Closure, Trace 274 9.6 Approaching the Possibility of “Metaphysics” 276 9.7 Trace and the Elements of “Metaphysics” 278 9.7.1 Form, Sign, Possibility 278 9.7.2 Presence, Non-sense, Différance 279 9.7.3 “Non-presence” and Negation 280 9.7.4 Opposition and Possibility 282 9.7.5 The Matter of Excess 283 9.7.6 Non-presence: Otherness and the Transcendental Dimension 285 9.8 Trace and Irruption: The Factor of Surprise 287 9.8.1 History and Source 287 9.8.2 Epoch and Sequence 288 9.8.3 The Determination of Surprises 288 9.8.4 Surprise and Différance 289 9.8.5 The Limits of Surprises 290 9.8.6 The Content of Surprises–A Proposal 290 9.8.7 Trace, Surprise and the Possibility of Assimilation 291 9.8.8 The Accessibility of Irruptions 291 9.9 Deconstruction and the Possibility of Categorization 293 9.10 Summary: Closure and Surprise–the Code of Metaphysics 297 10 Toward a Deconstructed Metaphysics 299 10.1 Introduction 299 10.2 Speculative Preamble 301 10.3 Deconstructive Metaphysics: Structural Considerations 303 10.3.1 Assumption A: The Tentative Status of “Formal” Properties 304 10.3.2 Assumption B: The Arena of Language 306 10.4 Zones of Specificity:Applicable Contexts 307 10.4.1 Derrida vs.