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Derrida on Différance

Kareem Khalifa

Department of Philosophy

Middlebury College

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Overview

• Jacques Derrida (JD) Bio

• Metaphysics of presence

• Différance• How Presence Presupposes

Différance

• Différance as Critical Tool• Derrida as Continental

Philosopher

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I. Biography

• Born July 15, 1931 El-Biar, Algeria

• Central advocate of “deconstruction” 

• a process by which the texts and languages of

Western philosophy (in particular) appear toshift and complicate in meaning when read inlight of the assumptions and absences theyreveal within themselves.

• Major Works:

• Speech and Phenomena (1967), Of

Grammatology  (1967), Writing and Difference  (1967), Glas (1974), Limited, Inc.  (1977),Postcard ( 1980), Margins of Philosophy (1982),Specters of Marx  (1993), Politics of Friendship(1994), ...

• Died October 8, 2004

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II. Metaphysics of

presence (MP)

• Recall from Heidegger: MP = treating

Being as present, i.e., given in anuncontroversial manner

• “Forgetting the difference between Being

and beings [entities]” 

• Discourages asking questions about

one’s life, values, etc., since these

things are taken for granted

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Derrida’s corrective to

MP: A very rough sketch

• Goal: not to take things for granted;

to recognize their contingency• Provides occasion to examine one’s

life, values, institutions, etc.

• JD: So make MP rest on a deeper

framework in which presence isquestioned, problematized, &

difficult to take for granted.

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How to fill out this

sketch• Specify what this deeper framework is

• Différance

• Specify how MP rests on a deeperframework• Everything present/given has a trace of

Différance

• Specify the kinds of questions and

problems this framework encouragesus to pose to taken-for-grantedconcepts.• What’s being left out? What’s being

assumed?

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III. Différance: The

Deeper Framework• Différance: JD’s own word 

• Plays on two meanings in Frenchword différer:• To Differ: to exhibit nonequivalence• To Defer: to postpone

• Différance refers to an underlyingmotif common to both concepts

• The meaning of a concept rests on itsdifferences with other concepts, andpart of its meaning is deferred(incomplete, absent)

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Différance Articulated

• Différance refers to “theproduction of differences

and the differences

between differences” =

“play of differences”

(441)

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Example of play

Good Bad

Service

Inept

Vicious EvilTemporary

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IV. Différance and

Presence

• Concepts are never present inthemselves, but always requireother concepts with which theymust differ. “Every concept is necessarily and

essentially inscribed in a chain or asystem, within which it refers toanother and to other concepts, by thesystematic play of differences.” (449) 

• These other concepts appear as a‘trace’ of the ‘given’ concept 

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Continuing with our

example… • Any use of a concept like ‘good’

would presuppose that ‘good’ plays a

role in our thought & language onlybecause:• It differs from other concepts (evil,

service, inept, etc.)

• As a result, its meaning is deferred,i.e., part of what it means to be goodhas yet to be determined• The concepts with which it differs can

change over time

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V. Différance as a

critical strategy

• Recap:

• JD specifies différance as theframework upon which all things

present rest

• JD’s remaining task: Specify thekinds of questions and problems this

framework encourages us to pose to

taken-for-granted concepts.

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Questions

• Treating différance as ‘primordial’

would encourage us to “question theauthority of presence or its simple

symmetrical contrary, absence or

lack.” (448) 

• What’s a concept being (implicitly)contrasted with? Who/what is being

excluded by the use of the concept?

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VI. Derrida as

Continental Philosopher

• JD argues that certain concepts are:

• Taken for granted, because they arecaught up in MP;

• Contingent, because they rest ondifferences with other concepts, andthese differences change over time;

• Bad/Problematic, because they foreclosecertain possibilities & exclude certainpeople/things; and

• Can be changed for the better byrecognizing the play of differencesunderlying the use of a concept.