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Deconstruction as Symbolic Play

Simmel/Derrida

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Deena Weinstein
Affiliation:
De Paul University
Michael A. Weinstein
Affiliation:
Purdue University

Extract

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At the end of his writing, “La Différance,” Jacques Derrida deconstructs his text by taking on an authoritative rhetorical tone. Reflecting back on his discussion of metaphysics, Derrida announces that “(t)here will be no unique name, even if it were the name of Being”. And then he takes a surprising phenomeno-logical turn and advocates a privileged attitude or disposition towards his reflection:

And we must think this without nostalgia, that is, outside the myth of a purely maternal or paternal language, a lost native country of thought. On the contrary, we must affirm this, in the sense in which Nietzsche puts affirmation into play, in a certain laughter and a certain step of the dance.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1990 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1 Jacques Derrida, "La Différance", Speech and Phenomena, and Other Essays on Husserl's Theory of Signs, Evanston, Northwestern University Press (French ed. 1968), 1973, pp. 129-160.

2 Ibid., p. 160.

3 Ibid., p. 160.

4 Kurt H. Wolff, ed., "Sociability", in The Sociology of Georg Simmel, New York, The Free Press (German ed. 1908), 1950, pp. 40-57.

5 Ibid., p. 41.

6 Ibid., p. 41.

7 Ibid., p. 42.

8 Ibid., p. 42.

9 Ibid., p. 43.

10 Ibid., p. 43.

11 Kurt H. Wolff, ed., "The Metropolis and Mental Life", in The Sociology of Georg Simmel, New York, The Free Press (German ed. 1908), 1950, pp. 409-424.

12 Kurt H. Wolff, ed., "Sociability", op. cit., p. 45.

13 Ibid., p. 55.

14 Ibid., p. 56.

15 John W. Murphy, "Jacques Derrida: a Rhetoric that Deconstructs Common Sense", Diogenes, 128, 1984 (pp. 125-140), here p. 132.

16 Ibid., p. 132.

17 Richard Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1979.

18 Jacques Derrida, "Implications", (interview with Henri Rouse), in Positions, Chicago, University of Chicago Press (French ed. 1972), pp. 3-14.

19 Ibid., p. 3.

20 Ibid., p. 4.

21 Ibid., p. 6.

22 Ibid., p. 6.

23 Ibid., p. 6.

24 Ibid., p. 7.

25 Ibid., p. 7.

26 Ibid., p. 14.

27 Georg Simmel, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Amherst, University of Mas sachusetts Press (German ed. 1907), 1986.

28 Ibid., p. LIV.

29 Ibid., p. LIII.

30 Ibid., p. LIII; p. LIV.

31 Ibid., p. LIV.

32 Ibid., p. LIV.

33 Kurt H. Wolff, ed., "the Triad", in The Sociology of Georg Simmel, New York, The Free Press (German ed. 1908), 1950, pp. 145-160, here pp. 145-47.

34 Ibid., p. 150.

35 Georg Simmel, op. cit., p. 181.

36 Georg Simmel, op. cit., p. 181.

37 Georg Simmel, op. cit., p. 181.

38 Georg Simmel, op. cit., p. 181.