March 28, 2007

There is No Center to Find; Which is Why We Search

[L]anguage bears within itself the necessity of its own critique. . . . their [rules of language] relative efficacy is exploited, and they are employed to destroy the old machinery to which they belong and of which they themselves are pieces.

Jacques Derrida, "Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences"

Jacques Derrida - I think you need to tutor me in language.

Language doesn't stay structured. Derrida argues that there is no structure that can be examined structurally, but that without a structure, there is no language. (Yes, it is circular; you did read that correctly.)

The guidelines set down for language are constantly broken - but they are broken because they are there. As Derrida put it, the rules of language are used to destroy the rules of language - and it is only because the rules of language are presented through the confines of the medium of language that they can do so.

Or, at least, I think that is what he meant.

Posted by Diana Geleskie at March 28, 2007 8:03 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Hi Diana!

I'm a Philosophy student at University of Salamanca (Spain). I'm working now on a presentation on Derrida, and as I've seen that
you work on one as well last term, I was wondering whether we could maybe get in touch and talk about Derrida.

So if you find the proposal attractive, my email id is: shiard[at]hotmail[dot]com

Also, I have checked out on the net Setonhill and, in a certain way, it looks to me
quite similar to my high school: the Mahindra United World College of India (www.uwc.org)

Along these lines, I'm also really into Literature, so I feel we might easily get on well.

Looking forward to your answer, and being pleased to meet you,


Pedro.

Posted by: Pedro at October 8, 2007 8:30 AM
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