“OK, so what I just wrote may be fanciful crap but it does express what I feel about mainstream philosophy, of which I think Heidegger is a part. Philosophy needs to start again, this time without the bonds that tie us to outworn ideas, if this is possible.” –Roger
Actually, Roger, I’m not seeing so much “fanciful crap” as someone who has their own systems of meaning (of differance (and is expressing themselves in those terms. This is why, while I had hoped to bounce off of your points, I cannot because I don’t understand it enough to be confident in any response I might make. And this is primarily because of my own systems of meaning that are not exactly coordinated with yours.
Dealing with our impasse, I realized that there are 2 aspects to writing: the internal and the external. The internal is how we capture our thoughts for ourselves. The external is how we communicate those thoughts to others via the rules that constitute the Lacanian symbolic order in which we must work: the very agreement that allows us to communicate.
That said though, you have provided me with a useful intro to today’s rhizome:
“Of course, the French word ‘différence’ (with an e) already brings into view the semantic dimension of, precisely, difference. Derrida appeals to a second sense belonging to the Latin verb ‘differre’ but completely absent from the French ‘différence’ that was in fact derived from it; namely, ‘the action of putting off’ – deferring. The point here is to get a semantic dimension of sameness into play as well (and into play without a commitment to a deferred presence; the only essential thing at issue when someone defers doing something is that instead of doing x now, they intend to do x later – whether ‘doing x’ can escape the logic of identity-in-différance being elaborated is a further question). French ‘différence’ (with an e) does not have this semantic component. Thence the value of a neologism which will compensate for this lack, with a term with greater semantic wealth: ‘we provisionally give the name différance to this sameness which is not identical’.” -Glendinning, Simon (2011-08-25). Derrida: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (p. 66). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
?: now, did anyone get that… If not, you’re in good company. At least I consider myself to be such. And if you do, you are perfectly free to skip over the following. But then you knew that, didn’t you?
The thing is I can explain the concept of Diffe̕rrance in a very blue-collarized and perhaps vulgarized way. Diffe̕rrance is a neologism of two words: difference and defer. It is a description of how language works through differentiating (for instance: the difference between a river and a brook (and through the deferral of meaning in that the definition of any word is always dependent on the definitions of the other words that are used to define it. And I got this understanding from a graphic guide, Derrida for Beginners, which many “serious” philosophers would scoff at since it doesn’t get at a full understanding of the term.
But I could easily counter this by pointing out that my description of it is merely a steppingstone into a fuller understanding of Diffe̕rrance. And the thing is, my description would give a lot of people something they can use until they reach a deeper understanding of it.
And I wouldn’t take issue with Glendinning had he of called his book a “study” of Derrida rather than an “intro”. But he chose to call it an intro then proceeded to engage in a lot of etherspeak as if he was more interested in showing off his comfort with the Derridaian nomenclature than actually explaining what the man meant –or, at least, what he thought Derrida meant.
It, to me, felt more like self indulgence than a sincere attempt to introduce anyone to the thought of Derrida. But this goes back to the point I made with Roger: that it’s not so much a matter of self indulgence as the comfort with an internal use of language as compared to an external one.
Glendinning felt like a professor saying it’s easy then proceeding to bamboozle you with a big bang of formulas expanding from a simple formula.