This is the first book-length philosophical study of Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology and Freud’s theory of the unconscious. The book investigates the possibility for Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology to clarify Freud’s concept of the unconscious with a focus on the theory of repression as its centre. Repression is the unconscious activity of pushing something away from consciousness, while making sure that it remains active as something foreign within us. How this is possible is the main problem addressed in the work. Unlike previous (...) literature (including Ricœur, Merleau-Ponty and Derrida) this book makes full use of the resources of genetic phenomenology and passivity in the attempt to clarify the Freudian unconscious. The central argument developed is that the structure of the lebendige Gegenwart as the core of Husserl’s theory of passivity consists of preliminary forms of bodily kinaesthesia, feelings and drives in a constantly ongoing process where repression occurs as a necessary part of all constitution. The clarification of Freudian repression thus takes place by showing how it presupposes a broad conception of consciousness such as that presented by Husserl’s genetic phenomenology. By arguing that “repression” is central to any philosophical account of subjectivity, this book takes on the most distinct challenge to philosophy posed by Freud. (shrink)

Abstract Derrida's deconstructive strategy of reading texts can be understood as a way of highlighting the irreducible plurality of discursive meaning that undermines the traditional Western “logocentric“ desire for an absolute point of reference. While his notion of logocentrism was modeled on Heidegger's articulation of the traditional ontotheological framework of Aristotelian metaphysics, Derrida detects a logocentric remnant in Heidegger's own interpretation of gathering ( Versammlung ) as the basic movement of λόγος, discursiveness. However, I suggest that Derrida here touches upon (...) a certain limit of deconstruction. As Derrida himself points out, the “decentering“ effect of deconstruction does not simply abolish the unifying and focalizing function of discourse. Insofar as deconstruction involves reading and interpreting, it cannot completely evade narrative focalization. Rather, both Heidegger and Derrida can be understood as addressing the radical contextuality of all discursive centers and focal points as well as the consequent impossibility of an ultimate and definitive meta narrative. (shrink)

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. (shrink)

This paper offers a critique of Derrida's deconstruction of the promise on the grounds that it does not adequately account for the ethical constitution of the promise in the pragmatic context of face-to-face dialogue. Instead, Derrida focuses on the way in which the promise opens the horizon of interpretation or readability for an indefinite community of readers. Derrida's view is explicated at length, drawing on Limited Inc, Le monolinguisme de l'autre: ou, la prosthèse d'origine, and 'Avances', the Preface to Serge (...) Margel's Le tombeau du dieu artisan. Paul Ricoeur's interpretation of the promise as an attestation of my availability to the other person is presented as a more justifiable grounding of ethics. Key Words: attestation • community • Derrida • ethics • pragmatics • promise • Ricoeur. (shrink)

Comenzamos este texto con una pregunta, por algo que podríamos llamar un signo propio de la época, a saber, la proliferación de aproximaciones espaciales a los más diversos problemas y desde las más diversas disciplinas. No podemos dejar de notar que eso, cuyos signos se dejan recoger a pesar de su dispersión, en algo que llamamos época, sobreviene después de un agotamiento de la radicalización del historicismo y de un pensamiento del tiempo.

Este ensayo se propone como una lectura tentativa de “Fors. Les mots anglés de Nicolas Abraham et Maria Torok”, texto que Jacques Derrida publicase en 1976 como prefacio al libro de Nicolas Abraham y Maria Torok, Cryptonymie. Le verbier de l’homme aux loups. A través de una suerte de mecanismo compositivo, se plantea que “Fors”, como operación bifaz de un doble cortante, pone en cuestión el campo de la institución psicoanalítica. A la vez, texto indispositivo e indigesto, expone el límite (...) de la asimilación introyectiva y cuestiona todo sistema de apropiación, neutralización, silenciamiento y/o recuerdo-interiorizante. Como un vómito interno, se trata, así, del “Yo” que porta al otro –al otro mortal en el yo y fuera del yo–, de aquello que instituye un fracaso en el cumplimiento de la asimilación. Se hacen lugar las cuestiones de la cripta, el lugar, la muerte –el otro como muerto vivo–, la cifra, el límite entre incorporación e introyección, el duelo imposible, así como un trazado de la operación del analista como poeta-traductor. “Fors” –fueros, salvo, excepto–, resta intraducible, indigerible, como marca una tópica fuera de sí. Deja la tarea de la traducción sin aforo, fuera de quicio, desaforada en una experiencia sin reserva ni fuero interno, infiel, desmedida, autoinmune, como un trabajo que no puede sino perder sus fueros, sus exenciones, sus privilegios. No estamos sino desaforados en traducción. Nuestra estancia en la transposición de la lengua: el desafuero. (shrink)

El presente artículo se propone evaluar los posibles aportes de la deconstrucción a la filosofía de la ciencia. Esta tarea aparece enfrentada con cierta visión de la deconstrucción como charlatanería, discurso vacío o escepticismo. Se lleva a cabo una revisión de las implicaciones filosóficas de la deconstrucción con el objetivo de elaborar una definición de la misma y elucidar la posición que ella tiene respecto del conocimiento científico. Dicha revisión revela que se la debe entender como una práctica contextualista y (...) crítica. Es una práctica porque aparece como un acto y no bajo la unidad de una teoría. Es contextualista porque no tiene contenido ni forma, sólo el mandato de leer y explorar contextos. Es crítica porque pretende desarmar la violencia contra la alteridad presente en toda ontología. Se establece que la deconstrucción puede aportar un abordaje estratégico capaz de relacionar y poner en tensión cada una de las instancias del trabajo científico. Esta aproximación problematiza las nociones clásicas de tiempo y espacio, cuestionando la perspectiva antropocentrista en pos de una defensa de lo que Derrida denomina alteridad. ARK: ark:/s18537960/rxmvh:/e8. (shrink)

Se realizará un recorrido por los trazos que Derrida, lector de Freud, esbozó en relación a la inscripción de la muerte en la vida, con el propósito de dar cuenta de cierta noción de auto-inmunidad que se deja entrever en aquello que ya no cabe entender como vida, simplemente, sino según el sintagma propuesto por Derrida, “la vida la muerte”. Se revisará la discusión psicoanalítica que Derrida sostiene con el espectro de Freud, cuyas vías de acceso descansan en “Freud y (...) la escena de la escritura” y “Especular –sobre ‘Freud’”. Así, se evidenciará la operación textual mediante la cual Derrida da cuenta de cierta relación entre huella y vida psíquica que Freud extiende incluso a la vida en general. A su vez, se especulará –a través de Derrida– sobre la metapsicología freudiana, en específico, la muerte como rodeo de la vida no solo “psíquica” sino, como afirma Freud, “orgánica en general”. (shrink)

The idea of aporia, according to the author, leads to the transformation of Derrida’s philosophy on the basis of a new kind of universalism. This new universalism is based on the principles of relation and difference; it involves the concept of “radically Other” into the field of the Universal. As an essential factor of binarism’s deconstruction, an aporia leads to undermine a paradigm of choice. Derrida substitutes this paradigm with an attitude to “impossible” interdependence of concepts, which, according to traditional (...) approach, are treated as incompatible. The author proves that universalistic potential of Derrida’s thought reveals itself in application of transcendental approach to the problem of universal. Nevertheless, in case of Derrida it is quasi-transcendentalism that unites in itself moments of critics and radicalization of Kantian and Husserlian types of transcendental approach. The paper proves that the idea of aporia has fundamental significance for constituting quasitranscendental universalism. Interconnectedness of concepts of aporia and experience is evinced, as well as fundamental link between the concept of aporia and basic quasitranscendental structure of “conditions of possibility/conditions of impossibility”. Within the problem of aporia, as is shown, inherently transcendental overlap between theoretical and practical dimensions is taken place. As is detected, in the discourse of aporia there appears a rethinking of Universal/Particular relation: traditional contraposition is transformed into oscillation and overlapping. The results of the study, set forth in the article, allow historico-philosophical conclusion about presence, significance and peculiarity of the motive of universality in Derrida’s quasitranscendentalism. Often remaining implicit, this motive, however, appears to be the driving force for deconstructive thinking. (shrink)

René Girard’s anthropology goes beyond Durkheim and Freud in seeking knowledge in literary, mythical, and religious texts. Girard’s primary intuition is that human culture originated in response to the danger of violent mimetic crises among increasingly intelligent hominins, whose imitation of each other’s desires led to conflict. These crises were resolved by the mechanism of emissary murder: the proto-human community came to focus its aggression on a single scapegoat whose unanimous lynching, by “miraculously” bringing peace, led to its ritual repetition (...) in sacrifice. Because this theory fails to found the signs of human language and worship on the deferral of spontaneous action, Girard can only attribute the internal peace necessary to the human community to the exhaustion of violent aggression. Instead, generative anthropology proposes that, beginning from the premise that the need to control internecine violence was the source of the human, an appropriative gesture toward an object of common desire, deferred out of fear of violence, becomes understood as a sign of the object’s sacred/interdicted status, after which it can be peacefully divided among the group. Following this originary event, the sacred/signifying universe of language and religion gradually comes to include the totality of human activity. (shrink)

The idea of aporia, according to the author, leads to the transformation of Derrida’s philosophy on the basis of a new kind of universalism. This new universalism is based on the principles of relation and difference; it involves the concept of“radically Other” (in particular, in the modes of particularity and singularity) into the field of the Universal. As an essential factor of binarism’s deconstruction, an aporia leads to undermine a paradigm of choice. Derrida substitutes this paradigm with an attitude to (...) “impossible” interdependence of concepts, which, according to traditional approach, are treated as incompatible. -/- The author proves that universalistic potential of Derrida’s thought reveals itself in application of transcendental approach to the problem of universal. Nevertheless, in case of Derrida it is quasi-transcendentalism that unites in itself moments of critics and radicalization of Kantian and Husserlian types of transcendental approach. -/- The paper proves that the idea of aporia has fundamental significance for constituting quasi-transcendental universalism. Interconnectedness (up to identity) of concepts of aporia and experience is evinced, as well as fundamental link between the concept of aporia and basic quasi-transcendental structure of “conditions of possibility/conditions of impossibility”. Within the problem of aporia, as is shown, inherently transcendental overlap between theoretical and practical dimensions is taken place. As is detected, in the discourse of aporia there appears a rethinking of Universal/Particular (Singular) relation: traditional contraposition is transformed into oscillation and overlapping (this rethinking is proper for the transcendental approach). -/- The results of the study, set forth in the article, allow historico-philosophical conclusion about presence, significance and peculiarity of the motive of universality in Derrida’s quasi-transcendentalism. Often remaining implicit, this motive, however, appears to be the driving force for deconstructive thinking. (shrink)

Desde una tradición que responde a la lógica oposicional aristotélica el silencio es considerado como único y absoluto, en su rechazo unívoco al habla. Sin embargo, sostener una frontera clara y distinta entre ambas instancias resulta problemático desde que se reconoce que el silencio es plural. Hay múltiples modos del silencio, uno de los cuales habla más que el enunciado más elocuente desde que confirma su oposición al discurso lógico y racional. Otro silencio, que aquí nos interesará analizar en detalle, (...) es aquél que escapa al principio de no-contradicción, es decir, que habla guardando silencio y poniendo en crisis la univocidad del sentido, para así abrir la posibilidad de pensar en otro modo de lo político. Lévinas, Blanchot y Derrida serán los nombres propios que guiarán nuestro recorrido por este frágil itinerario, que sólo puede atravesarse traicionando, mediante la escritura, ese silencio al que se quisiera dar lugar. (shrink)

The call to “know thyself” is neither a matter of presence and absence to self, nor the necessary or unnecessary possibility or impossibility of self-knowledge ‒ rather it is a problem. And the oracle gives a sign of this problem by implying that which is neither spoken nor concealed. But if implication is the problem of the sign, it is because it suspends the self and the very possibility of self-knowledge.

The article investigates Dostoevsky’s juridical discourse and demonstrates that the apologist of the Russian soul had a genuinely European mind. In his novel The Idiot in particular, in which the death penalty and imprisonment are explored, Dostoevsky unmasks—more radically even than Victor Hugo—the supposedly civilised and lenient forms of modern criminal justice. Dostoevsky’s criticism is ahead of its time; his arguments resemble those subsequently put forward by Foucault. A comparison with Anatoly Pristavkin’s report on post-Communist crime and jurisdiction underscores the (...) topicality of these reflections. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to raise the question of aging as an ontological question. In critical dialogue with Heidegger’s exploration of the question of being, the first half of the paper argues that fundamental ontology, due to the way it relies on a methodological operationalization of the ontological difference, will remain blind to the ontological generativity of the differences that aging makes. I introduce the term gerontological difference as a name for this kind of difference. The second half (...) of the paper explores the quasi-transcendental play of gerontological difference. Drawing on Foucault, Guenther and Agamben, I suggest that this play might be described in archaeological terms by tracing _the historical a priori_ in which age distinctions are operationalized biopolitically. Drawing on Derrida and Nancy, I argue that this archaeological view of the quasi-transcendental play of gerontological difference must be supplemented with a view of aging as material _différance_. According to this understanding of the quasi-transcendental play of gerontological difference, aging is an ontologically generative event that organizes intercorporeal tangles of coexistence and opens emergent fields of possible experience. (shrink)

O artigo se propõe a esclarecer a hesitante relação de Foucault com a teoria estruturalista da década de 1960 a partir da recondução histórica e política dessa questão ao debate intelectual que procurou, com maior ou menor sucesso, no modelo linguístico de Saussure, uma nova grade de inteligibilidade para as ciências humanas ciências humanas. A descrição das transformações que ocorreram no interior deste debate e o modo como elas levaram Foucault a repensar sua participação nele nos ajudam a esclarecer como (...) a simpatia explícita pelo estruturalismo do início dos anos 1960 cede lugar a uma recusa insistente de filiar-se a ele no final dessa década. This paper intends to elucidate the hesitating relation between Foucault and structuralist theory at the 1960s by recasting it, in a historical and political way, within the intellectual debate that tried to build, more or less successfully, a new grid of comprehensibleness to humanities from the linguistic model of Ferdinand de Saussure. The descritption of transformations that took place within this debate and the way they compelled Foucault to rethink his participation in it could help us to understand how explicit affinities towards structuralism in the beginning of the 1960s gives place to an insistent refusal of affiliation at the end of this decade. (shrink)

The article is devoted to historico-philosophical investigation of the grounds of universalism of special type. This universalism, inherent in transcendental thinking, was radicalized in quasi-transcendental discourse of Jacques Derrida. It is established that explicit critique of universalism in deconstructive philosophy is aimed at “logo-centric” paradigm of universality which is questioned by (quasi)transcendental philosophy. Constitutive function of difference and otherness in establishment of transcendental and especially quasi-transcendental universality was brought to light. It was shown that in (quasi)transcendental discourse singularity is involved (...) into the sphere of universal, whereas “dogmatic” universalism brought singularity and/or particularity outside, thus questioning its own claims. Tracing transcendentalist tendency to balance status and significance of universal and particular (singular), the author concludes that relation between them makes possible constituting hyper-universality of special type. Universal implications of the Derrida’s notion “quasi-transcendental” are defined. It was determined that one of the main factors constituting universalism of quasi-transcendental type is the deconstruction of binary thinking, accomplished first of all with the help of principles: differance, insolvability (aporia) and trace. Among them insolvability implies universality revealing the overlap and mutual conditioning of alternative (at a glance) elements. Instead, the trace conditions superiority of logo-centric alternatives “primary-secondary” and “presence-absence”. (shrink)

Resumo: Este artigo parte da análise da influência de Hegel na construção do conceito de capital e de ideologia, na obra de Marx. Para tal, buscou-se analisar a passagem dos primeiros escritos humanistas de Marx à sua teoria tardia. Da ruptura realizada por Marx em relação a suas obras de juventude, surge o problema de como determinar o sujeito, uma vez que a perspectiva humanista inicial é abandonada. A ideia é a de que, paradoxalmente, quando critica a dialética hegeliana, Marx (...) termina por encontrar problemas que poderiam ser resolvidos através de conceitos hegelianos, como a questão do sujeito de classe. É o que procuraremos argumentar por meio de uma análise sobre o papel da negatividade em Hegel.: This article starts with an analysis of the influence of Hegel on the construction of the concepts of capital and ideology in Marx's work. To this end, we analyze the transition from Marx's first humanist writings to his later theory. Due to the break achieved by Marx in relation to his early works, a problem arises: the determination of the revolutionary subject once the initial humanist perspective has been abandoned. Our thesis is that when Marx leaves Hegel, he paradoxically ends up encountering problems that can only be resolved by Hegelian dialectics,. We argue this by means of an analysis of the role of negativity in Hegel. (shrink)

El texto avanza algunas tesis en torno a la relación entre Agustín de Hipona y Heidegger. El objetivo es problematizar la noción de evento según se presenta en los Beitrëge zur Philosophie. Vom Ereignis. Primero se hace un recorrido por las más explícitas relaciones entre ambos pensadores para mostrar algunas similitudes y después plantear los problemas que implica la recepción que tiene Heidegger de la tradición y sus implicaciones para la noción de ´evento´.

Se rendre sur la tombe de Gian-Carlo Rota, enterré au Mount Auburn Cemetery de Cambridge, inspire la réflexion à propos de la généalogie mathématique et philosophique. La première remonte idéalement, à travers Stan Ulam, jusqu’à Von Neumann, alors que la seconde ramène, par le biais de John Rawls et de Norman Malcom, à Ludwig Wittgenstein. Ces noms sont autant de « spectres » évoquant la valeur admirable de son héritage intellectuel et de son engagement éducatif. L’article explore l’étendue de ses (...) domaines de recherche, délimite les frontières qui passent par la combinatoire, la physique, l’informatique, les processus industriels, en aboutissant – par la phénoménologie –, à la réflexion philosophique sur les mathématiques, sur la psychologie et sur la politique.A visit to Gian-Carlo Rota’s tomb, who is buried at Mount Auburn cemetery in Cambridge, inspires insight into his mathematical and philosophical genealogy. The former, ideally goes back to Von Neumann, through Stan Ulam, while the latter leads – through John Rawls and Norman Malcom – to Ludwig Wittgenstein. Such eminent names are closely linked to his intellectual heritage and his educational commitment. The paper focuses on the very wide boundaries of Rota’s research covering combinatorics, physics, computer science, industrial processes and – through phenomenology – philosophical reflection on mathematics, psychology and politics. Una visita alla tomba di Gian-Carlo Rota, sepolto presso il Mount Auburn cemetery di Cambridge, ispira la riflessione sulla sua genealogia matematica e filosofica. La prima risale idealmente, attraverso Stan Ulam, sino a Von Neumann, mentre, la seconda, riconduce, per tramite di John Rawls e Norman Malcom, a Ludwig Wittgenstein. Questi nomi sono altrettanti ‘spettri’ che evocano il grande valore della sua eredità intellettuale e del suo impegno educativo. L’articolo perimetra gli amplissimi confini della ricerca di Rota che attraversano la combinatoria, la fisica, l’informatica, i processi industriali, arrivando, per mezzo della fenomenologia, sino alla riflessione filosofica sulla matematica, la psicologia e la politica.This article is in French. (shrink)

Derrida dice en más de una oportunidad que la cuestión de los demás vivientes, de lo otro que lo humano, ha inquietado siempre su escritura, aún cuando no fuera tema explícito de sus formulaciones. Este trabajo busca abordar esta aseveración como una ocasión para interrogar si tal inquietud se inscribió de manera semejante en todos los casos, o si acaso a los distintos tópicos, interlocutores y, en suma, texturas que atraviesa la escritura derridiana, no siguen impactos filosóficos relevantes para el (...) enfoque de tal problema. Para ello se reelerá _La voz y el fenómeno_ a la luz de las principales tesis del plantismo tal como lo desarrollan M. Marder y J. T. Nealon, a sabiendas no obstante que las plantas no suelen constituir los vivientes no humanos a los que se refiere Derrida. En este sentido, y sin pretender mostrar un supuesto solapamiento o develar lo que en verdad Derrida habría _querido-decir_, la presente investigación busca examinar una serie de herramientas que nos parecen particularmente interesantes para abordar la subjetividad desde una perspectiva postmetafísica. (shrink)

Le monolithe est la métaphore d’une interprétation de la personnalité humaine que Gian-Carlo Rota considère comme extrêmement périlleuse. Une partie de sa réflexion philosophique est consacrée à la critiquer, avec d’autres mythes répandus dans la culture con-temporaine. C’est une approche qui, sous certains aspects, peut être rapprochée de celle proposée par la déconstruction derridienne. L’article examine les occurrences et les acceptions du concept de « personnalité » dans les textes de Rota, afin de mettre en évidence l’influence de la psychanalyse (...) existentielle et, plus généralement, celle de la réflexion phénoménologique de Jean-Paul Sartre. Dans cette perspective, le sens philosophique de ses brefs textes biographiques, inspirés par le style de Ennio Flaiano, et que Rota a consacré à quelques grands mathématiciens, sera éclairci.Monoliths are the metaphor to interpret that specific as-pect of human personality, which was considered by Gian-Carlo Rota as extremely dangerous. A part of his philosophical reflection criticized it, along with other myths that are part of contemporary culture, according to an approach that, in a certain perspective, could be correlated to Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction. The paper focuses on the occurrence of the word ‘personality’ and its meaning in Rota’s books, in order to highlight the influence of existential psychoanalysis and, more generally, of Jean-Paul Sartre’s phenomenological reflection on them. In this perspective, the philosophical sense of the short biographical writings is evi-dent; such writings were inspired by Ennio Flaiano’s style and were dedicated by the author to some important mathematicians. Il monolite è la metafora d’una interpretazione della personalità umana che Gian-Carlo Rota riteneva estremamente pericolosa. Una parte della sua riflessione filosofica era votata a criticarla, insieme ad altri miti diffusi nella cultura contemporanea, in un senso che può essere avvicinato, sotto alcuni aspetti, a quello proposto dalla decostruzione [déconstruction] di Jacques Derrida. L’articolo esamina le occorrenze e le accezioni del termine ‘personalità’ nei testi di Rota per evidenziare l’influenza della psicoanalisi esistenziale e, più in generale, della riflessione fe-nomenologica di Jean-Paul Sartre su di essi. Si chiarisce, in questa prospettiva, il senso filosofico dei brevi testi biografici, ispirati dallo stile di Ennio Flaiano, che Rota dedica ad alcuni grandi matematici.This article is in French. (shrink)

Expanded edition with new chapters and updates to the translation and bibliography. Borges cites innumerable authors in the pages making up his life’s work, and innumerable authors have cited and continue to cite him. More than a figure, then, the quotation is an integral part of the fabric of his writing, a fabric made anew by each reading and each re-citation it undergoes, in the never-ending throes of a work-in-progress. Block de Behar makes of this reading a plea for the (...) very art of communication; a practice that takes community not in the totalized and totalizable soil of pre-established definitions or essences, but on the ineluctable repetitions that constitute language as such, and that guarantee the expansiveness—through etymological coincidences of meaning, through historical contagions, through translinguistic sharings of particular experiences—of a certain index of universality. This edition includes a new introduction by the author and three entirely new chapters, as well as updated images and corrections to the original translation. Lisa Block de Behar is Professor of Communications at the Universidad de la República in Montevideo, Uruguay and is a renowned Jorge Luis Borges scholar. William Egginton is Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and Chair of the Department of German and Romance Languages and Literatures at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of several books, including In Defense of Religious Moderation. Christopher RayAlexander is a graduate student and language instructor in the Department of German and Romance Languages and Literatures at Johns Hopkins University. (shrink)

The article is devoted to historico-philosophical investigation of the grounds of universalism of spe-cial type. This universalism, inherent in transcendental thinking, was radicalized in quasi-transcendental discourse of Jacques Derrida. It is established that explicit critique of universalism in deconstructive phi-losophy is aimed at “logo-centric” paradigm of universality which is questioned by transcendental philosophy. Constitutive function of difference and otherness in establishment of transcendental and especially quasi-transcendental universality was brought to light. It was shown that in transcendental dis-course singularity is involved (...) into the sphere of universal, whereas “dogmatic” universalism brought singularity and/or particularity outside, thus questioning its own claims. Tracing transcendentalist ten-dency to balance status and significance of universal and particular, the author concludes that relation between them makes possible constituting hyper-universality of special type. Universal implications of the Derrida’s notion “quasi-transcendental” are defined. It was determined that one of the main factors constituting universalism of quasi-transcendental type is the deconstruction of binary thinking, accomplished first of all with the help of principles: differance, insolvability and trace. Among them insolvability implies universality revealing the overlap and mutual conditioning of alternative elements. Instead, the trace conditions superiority of logo-centric alternatives “primary-secondary” and “presence-absence”. (shrink)

Teksty są co najmniej w dwójnasób transcendentne. Z jednej strony poprzez język, tworzywo tekstu, który konstytuując się w diachronii i funkcjonując w synchronii, transcenduje – żeby użyć sformułowania Karla Jaspersa – przeszłą rzeczywistość w postaci powstałych wtedy znaków i ich znaczeń w nieznaną z tamtej perspektywy przyszłość, a więc i w naszą teraźniejszość. Z drugiej zaś istniejące już teksty wchodzą z sobą w interakcję, co powoduje, że tworzą się niejako hiperteksty w czasie i w przestrzeni. Jest jeszcze i trzeci wymiar (...) – to autor tekstu i czytelnik, którym tekst pozwala – jak mówi Gerhard Kurz – wyjść „poza siebie”, bo tylko wtedy odczuwamy potrzebę powrotu do „własnego ja”, odrzucając po drodze kolejną maskę. W artykule pokazano to na przykładzie tekstów Franza Kafki. Spośród wielu poruszonych tam wątków ograniczmy się tutaj jedynie do toposu syren, które zniewalały żeglarzy swym śpiewem. U Kafki syreny już definitywnie nie śpiewają, wobec czego Odyseusz niepotrzebnie kazał zatykać sobie uszy woskiem. Kafka stawia tylko kropkę nad i, bo już i we wcześniejszej literaturze niemieckiej ten śpiew cichł coraz bardziej. I tak w znanej pieśni Heinego Loreley poeta już nie jest pewny skuteczności śpiewu syren – on jedynie chce w to wierzyć: „Wierzę, że fale w końcu pochłoną i żeglarza i łódź”. Bo w czasach nihilizmu śpiew – i sztuka w ogóle – traci swą moc. W balladzie Rybak Goethego syrena wprawdzie jeszcze tryumfuje, ale to nie za sprawą śpiewu. Śpiew bowiem dominuje w drugiej zwrotce, natomiast rybak pogrąża się w odmętach morza dopiero w czwartej zwrotce, gdzie dominuje perswazja słowna. Ta inwersja – notabene brak jej w polskim tłumaczeniu Hanny Januszewskiej w Dziełach wybranych J. W. Goethego – nie mogła być u Goethego przypadkowa: symbolizuje ona typową dla lustrzanego odbicia odwróconą proporcję – rybak tak naprawdę ujrzał własne odbicie w wodzie, biorąc je za postać syreny. Śmierć w odmętach morza była ceną za brak samowiedzy. Nie darmo zatem napis na świątyni Apollina w Delfach głosił: „Γνῶθι σεαυτόν – Poznaj samego siebie”. (shrink)