Derrida and Universals

Posted on December 15, 2008
Filed Under Derrida, Peirce, Philosophy | Leave a Comment

This is a great quote I came upon. It deals with Derrida but applies equally to Pierce’s conception of universals. (I’ll see if I can’t find a Peirce quote tomorrow) I think Derrida was actually somewhat influenced by Peirce here. (Looking at this section on Peirce in On Grammatology) Although I think his primary influence was a careful reading and critique of Husserl and the notion of ideal objects.

By highlighting the necessity of writing, which both binds idealities to real ink and paper, while at the same time freeing the marks laid out on paper for ideality as indefinite repetition, différance interweaves fact and essence, the empirical and the transcendental, as it incorporates critiques of both Platonistic objectivism and empiricist subjectivism, The universal does not drop from the sky, but is generated by the repetition of empirical, subjective acts, As generated, each instance is split by its reference to another act, a reference to altenty that is an absolute past that could never be gathered into a present. However, we must remember that it is the repeatability of those acts that constitutes their sense and so there must have been form there all along guiding genesis, form as a regulative idea, This idea can never be saturated by content, for the form is announced only as the rule guiding repetition, Thus the future is open-ended as the contexts within which an act will be repeated are never fully foreseeable, In sum, parodying Kant, structure without generation is empty — dead repetition, “pure” univocity; genesis without structure is blind — chaos, “pure” dissemination. (John Protevi, Time and Exteriority: Aristotle, Heidegger, Derrida, 14-15)

I’ll have more on this over the next few weeks. The point is to convert a discussion of phenomenology into being conceived of in terms of semiotics. That is there is no “pure” phenomenology of the sort Husserl wants. I think that this leads towards Peircean phenomenology although clearly not everyone agrees.

BTW – those interested in the above might find the following old posts interesting.

Derrida and Peirce: A First Step
Derrida and Peirce

Yeah, I’m none too original with post titles.

Related posts:

  1. The Derrida Debate
  2. Peirce on Universals
  3. “Substances all the Way Down”
  4. Derrida and the Text
  5. Best Introduction to Derrida?
  6. Some Quick Thoughts on Derrida and Plotinus

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