Αἰὼν παῖς ἐστι παίζων πεσσεύων· παιδὸς ἡ βασιληίη. “The aeon (The Geschick of being) is a child at play, playing at draughts; dominion is the child’s” (that is to say, dominion over being as a whole). Heraclitus fragment 52: In the previous series I looked at Derrida’s critique of example thinking.  When we look at … Jacques Derrida and the Philosophy of Death in Response to Heidegger in “APORIAS” (Part 2)

This will be my last series on Derrida and Death and I will be looking at his book APORIAS. Here’s a little context for making sense of the series: Friedrich Nietzsche discusses ancient Greek “proofs” of the soul’s immortality primarily to critique them as life-denying inventions that paved the way for Christian asceticism. Nietzsche identifies … Jacques Derrida and the Philosophy of Death in Response to Heidegger in “APORIAS” (Part 1)

Derrida says Philosophical thinking is usually thought as taking up a guiding thread in a text  (e.g., negative theology) provisionally, and seeing what we can do with it (Sauf le nom, 62).  It concludes by going “back, then once more, briefly, to the beginning, and rapidly trace the steps that led us to the point … Jacques Derrida and Khora (conclusion)

I’m beginning my last two blog series on Jacques Derrida.  Previously I looked at his book The Gift of Death and essay Sauf le nom, and now I will be looking at his essay khora, which looks at Plato’s Timaeus.  In my last series I will look at Derrida’s reading of Heidegger in “Aporias.” In … Jacques Derrida and Khora (Part 1)

We’ve been thinking about apophasis/negative theology, a way of approaching God without attributing things to him.  This was popularized by the Christian mystic tradition.  Angelus Silesius mentions the heart becoming the Mount of Olives in Book 2, epigram 81 of Cherubinischer Wandersmann (translated as The Cherubinic Wanderer). The original German text reads: “Soll dich des … Jacques Derrida and Angelus Silesius in Sauf le nom (Conclusion)

(free AI image) “19 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, … Jacques Derrida and Nietzsche in Sauf le nom (part 6): God’s Ass?

The unknown God of negative theology (not this, not that) is a singularity that overflows attempts a generalizing with an essence, overflowing opposites like thing/non thing, being/ non being – transcending all theological attributes (Derrida, Sauf le nom, 52) in the form A is B.  We assume as our a priori that we have understood … Jacques Derrida in “Sauf le nom” (part 5)

We’ve been thinking about negative theology / apophatic theology with Derrida’s Sauf le nom, the idea of characterizing the divine by negating predicates: wise without wisdom, powerful without power.  It is a kind of language/translating.  It is a being-together or gathering together of singularities (46) that is not just that of a subsuming under a … Jacques Derrida and Søren Kierkegaard in “Sauf le nom” (part 4)

Derrida’s Sauf le nom (Post-Scriptum) begins with a look at apophatic theology (negative theology) and Augustine’s Confessions.  Apophatic theology is the idea that we approach God, not through attribution (e.g., God is all-powerful), but through questioning and negation [“Meister Eckhart cites him often; he often cites the ‘without’ of Saint Augustine, that quasi-negative predication of … Jacques Derrida, Friedrich Nietzsche and Søren Kierkegaard in “Sauf le nom” (part 3)

Martin Heidegger did his major study lecture course on Plato’s Sophist around the same time as Being and Time, and a major focus is Antisthenes on the question of naming. Let’s approach this obliquely with the question on the sciences. Academic fields differ in their objects of inquiry based on the nature of reality they … Jacques Derrida and Martin Heidegger in “Sauf le nom” (part 2)