Micah Tillman

^{[ What Is Modernism? | Examples | What Is Postmodernism? | Examples ]}

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Jacques Derrida (and Deconstruction)

The modernist “wheel” in La Voix et Phénomène (and everything else he wrote) that spins itself:

(1) Order of Priority:

Logical/Causal — using Temporal metaphors — and Moral

(2) Current Oppressive Authority (or Priority):

The Metaphysics of Presence (that is, the celebration of identity, sameness, totalization)

(3) Prior Authority (or Priority):

Difference/Other(ness) and, therefore, Differance.  (Differance is that which is prior to, the condition of, all difference, and since everything is constituted by being different from itself, differance is prior to and the condition of everything.  It’s even prior to the very notion of conditions, origins, foundations, etc., since it is the condition of those things.  It’s the non-foundational foundation, the origin that’s “older” than any origin.  Thus, it’s the condition that’s not a condition, the foundation that’s not a foundation, the source that’s not a source.)

(4) Goal:

A final undercutting of all claims to legitimacy for any coercion, oppression, or power (whether physical, logical, emotional, political, personal, etc.); radical egalitarianism in every aspect of life.

(5) How the Wheel Spins Itself:

Differance is always prior to whatever you think it is.  It is always the source or condition of whatever you think it is.  Therefore, it is always one step beyond what you think it is, always undercutting what you thought it was.  It is always on the move, always saying, “Nope, not that either!”  Thus, it keeps the “wheel” always spinning, and can never be tied down — and therefore can never be critiqued or refuted.

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“Discourse” Theorists

The modernist “wheel” in their theory of “the discourse” (as the ultimate source of all assertions, questions, self-understandings, histories, beliefs, etc.) that spins itself:

(1) Order of Priority:

Logical, Causal, and Moral

(2) Current Oppressive Authority (or Priority):

Autonomy and Self-Aggrandizement. (E.g., the the Ego, the Subject, the Author, the Genius, the Individual.)

(3) Prior Authority (or Priority):

The Discourse (which produces the notions of Autonomy, Self, the Ego, the Subject, the Author, the Genius, the Individual).

As Crystal Downing writes (in her How Postmodernism Serves (My) Faith):

[A] work of art is not an ‘autonomous structure’; it contains concepts, constructs, paradigms, ideas, prasing that are manifest in other texts — whether the writer intended them to be there or not.  The auther does not ‘originate’ ideas; the discourse of her culture does. (92)

(4) Goal:

A final undercutting of all claims of independence, of all appropriations (thefts) of what actually belongs “to the other” by “the same.”  An end to all celebrations of power and self (which lead naturally to denigrations of the marginalized and other).

(5) How the Wheel Spins Itself:

It shifts all responsibility to the discourse, and away from the speaker/author/actor.  The Discourse Theorist avoids having to take any stand that can be critiqued or undercut, and does so by fobbing off his stands on the discourse (for which she is merely the [more or less unwitting] mouthpiece).

Thus, even his claims about discourses are products of the discourse, not his own claims.  They do not come from him, but from the discourse.  His claims/beliefs/questions are constructed for him by the discourse.

Even Discourse Theory, therefore, is a construct of the discourse, and thus even our understanding of the way things are constructed by our discourse is constructed by our discourse.  Everything is a construct (everything is non-primary, everything lacks priority, nothing is prior).  Thus, the “wheel” spins itself.

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Anti-Foundationalists and Anti-Fundamentalists

The modernist “wheel” in their theory that all theoretical foundations are unstable (and thus not true foundations) or destructive (and thus not worthy of being treated as foundations):

(1) Order of Priority:

Logical and Moral

(2) Current Oppressive Authority (or Priority):

Foundationalism and Fundamentalism. (I.e., the idea that some ideas are prior to everything else, and therefore cannot be compromised, but instead must be defended.  The idea that everything can be based on a certain [set] of self-evident core beliefs or facts.)

(3) Prior Authority (or Priority):

Nothing (taken as a thing; the No-Foundation, Lack-of-Fundamentals).

(4) Goal:

A final undercutting of all claims to legitimacy for any coercion, oppression, or power (whether physical, logical, emotional, political, personal, etc.); radical egalitarianism in every aspect of life.

(5) How the Wheel Spins Itself:

In claiming that nothing is prior to every foundation and fundamental, Anti-Foundationalism and Anti-Fundamentalism are claiming both that no foundation or fundamental is actually foundational or fundamental, and that beneath (underlying, before, prior to) all foundations and fundamentals there is nothing.

Thus, the Anti-Foundationalist and Anti-Fundamentalist need never be tied down to any one claim or stand, since nothing is fundamental; there is nothing that cannot be compromised.  Everything is arbitrary (everything is founded on nothing, and thus has no justification), even your critiques of their (non)position, therefore anything can be taken up or left behind as needed/desired.

Thus, nothing is even prior to Anti-Foundationalism and Anti-Fundamentalism.  In choosing nothing as their “prior” or “foundation” or “fundamental” or “authority,” these theories undercut themselves, and thus are constantly on the move.

They are always able to say, “Ah, but you see, you don’t understand us, because you’re framing us as if we believe in some foundation or fundamental, which we don’t.  We believe nothing is primary, not even nothing, which is a kind of thing.”

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^{[ What Is Modernism? | Examples | What Is Postmodernism? | Examples ]}

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Tags: Anti-Foundationalism, Anti-Fundamentalism, Differance, Discourse, Foundationalism, Fundamentalism, Jacques Derrida, modernism, post-modernism, postmodernism