Derrida’s politics lack rational grounding because his language philosophy denies discourse-world relations.
Evidence
Best able to meet the demands of this predicament would be a philosophical language that would strive for intelligibility without confusing it with clarity. As an expression of the thing itself, language is not fully reducible to communication with others. Nor, however … is it simply independent of communication. Otherwise it would elude all critique, even in its relationship to the matter at hand, and would reduce that relationship to an arbitrary presumption. Language as expression of the thing itself and language as communication are interwoven. The ability to name the matter at hand is developed under the compulsion to communicate it, and that element of coercion is preserved in it; conversely, it could not communicate anything that it did not have as its own intention, undistracted by other considerations. This dialectic plays itself out within the medium of language itself; it is not merely a fall from grace on the part of an inhumane social zeal that watches to make sure that no one thinks anything that cannot be communicated. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1014 (
#qualifies, via linked claim)
Paying respect to the prevailing variety of meanings and usages, to the power and common sense of ordinary speech, while blocking (as extraneous material) analysis of what this speech says about the society that speaks it, linguistic philosophy suppresses once more what is continually suppressed in this universe of discourse and behavior. The authority of philosophy gives its blessing to the forces which make this universe. Linguistic analysis abstracts from what ordinary language reveals in speaking as it does—the mutilation of man and nature. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 652 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
Nevertheless Derrida himself is concerned to establish the politically oppositional character of his philosophy. Thus, reflecting in 1980 on his intellectual trajectory, he declared: ‘I have been increasingly preoccupied with the necessity of making a fresh start on questions said to be classically institutional.’ — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 317 (
#responds-to, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Linguistic philosophy suppresses what speech reveals about the society that speaks it — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 652; Derrida claimed his philosophy was politically oppositional from 1980 on. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 317; Philosophical language must interweave expression and communication, neither reducible to the other — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1014
Related
- Philosophical language must interweave expression and communication, neither reducible to the other (similarity 0.85)
- Derrida claimed his philosophy was politically oppositional from 1980 on. (similarity 0.85)
- Poststructuralist language theory need not ground political commitments (similarity 0.85)
- Linguistic philosophy suppresses what speech reveals about the society that speaks it (similarity 0.84)
- Language itself is a political battlefield when discourse is indoctrinated (similarity 0.80)
- Language itself has become a site where reified theory falsifies lived experience (similarity 0.80)
Broader Connections
- Linguistic philosophy suppresses what speech reveals about the society that speaks it
#corroborates(0.72) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 652 - Derrida claimed his philosophy was politically oppositional from 1980 on.
#responds-to(0.72) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 317 - Philosophical language must interweave expression and communication, neither reducible to the other
#qualifies(0.72) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1014