Comments on: Rorty on Derrida on Heidegger

By: Clark

Clark — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:40:04 +0000

I also agree that whatever one says about Derrida's styles or the focus of his work that he's been remarkably consistent philosophically.

By: Michael Dorfman

Michael Dorfman — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:36:44 +0000

middlexeast: Following Richard Beardsworth’s reading of Derrida, there are two possible futures for Derrida’s philosophy: a “left-wing” Derrideanism which would return to the earlier texts of Derrida which read metaphysical logic in terms of the disavowal of techne; a “right-wing” Derrideanism which would follow up on more recent work of Derrida “on the absolute originarity of the promise and of his reorganization of religious discourse to think and describe it.”

This seems quite odd to me, in a number of ways. First of all, I don’t see what would lead one to label Derrida’s more recent work on “the promise” as “right-wing” in any sense; in fact, some of the most fundamental work around these issues came in “Specters of Marx”.

Secondly, and perhaps more decisively, I’m not sure how we could distinguish between these two “Derridas” that are allegedly in opposition– I don’t see any radical discontinuity between the later works and, say, “Violence and Metaphysics”– in fact, they are all of a piece. The “originarity of the promise” follows directly from Derrida’s reading of Levinas and Husserl– it (chronologically) precedes the more famous works of 1967 and 1972.

By: Clark

Clark — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:36:36 +0000

I think the problem with Derrida’s texts is that they point to an opening but not to a filling. That is all forms of politics are expressions of Being and actions of existing agents. I think that what Derrida has found (and I agree with him) is simply too broad to be able to do much with in the way he wants to do it.

That’s not to say that by being open to things like Justice, Giving, and so forth we can’t come to understand them and have them act upon us. But I think that this coming forth can’t properly be called right wing or left wing.

By: middlexeast

middlexeast — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:30:27 +0000

I agree with the most of the things you wrote. But I am not sure about your concluding remark which says,”I think, his work more prone for misuse and abuse than to lead people towards a better political ideal.”

Following Richard Beardsworth’s reading of Derrida, there are two possible futures for Derrida’s philosophy: a “left-wing” Derrideanism which would return to the earlier texts of Derrida which read metaphysical logic in terms of the disavowal of techne; a “right-wing” Derrideanism which would follow up on more recent work of Derrida “on the absolute originarity of the promise and of his reorganization of religious discourse to think and describe it.”