Re: not playing so nice

And still...

Luke asks:

"How does Derrida escape 'presence?'"

He doesn't. He doesn't claim to. He doesn't want to. He is not trying to.
He does not think such a thing is possible. He has no desire to. He does
not believe it can or should be done.

He is fascinated by presence. By how it has functioned in the history of
philosophy. By where it turns up and as what and why and what it's effects have
been. But he never once even suggests that it can in any way be escaped or
avoided or transcended or diminished or erased or anything else. It is, in
fact, always already inscribed into writing, for instance. Including his own. He
insists on this. Critiquing the metaphysics of presence in no way destroys
it or even calls for it to be destroyed. It studies its legacies and effects,
yes, and analyzes its contexts and situations (historical, political, ethical,
etc.). But, as an act of reading, it does not ever seek to deny or escape it.

Nor does he deny "logos." In fact, he insists that it is a part of
everything he writes, reads, analyzes and studies. And there is no getting around,
over, beyond, above or through it. The critique of specific philosophical texts
as being "logocentric" or as allowing "logos" to operate in a specific and
singularly central and, for him, interesting and historically important way, in
no way dismisses, negates, or even speaks negatively of logos itself.
Derrida's readings of Plato make this very clear, for instance.

He insists on the preservation of logos and speaks often against any attempt
to move beyond it or step outside of it or simply break from it. In fact, he
often criticizes such attempts in philosophical texts and demonstrates why
they are doomed to failure. This is part of his disagreement with Foucault, for
example, on reason and madness.

Again, Luke, somewhere you picked up an idea about Derrida's work which does
not speak to at least half of what he writes.

--John

-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
Received on Mon Aug 11 23:19:57 2003