[2] The term “soul” implies a living entity who animates / gives life to a nonliving or inanimate object. Of Grammatology. Added an extra link to another (more recent) post where I talk about Voice and Phenomenon. All three books announce the new philosophical project called “deconstruction.” Although Derrida will later regret the fate of the term “deconstruction,” he will use it throughout his career to define his own thinking. This paper intends, by way of a re-reading of Derrida’s most powerful text from this period, Speech and Phenomenon, to bring to light Derrida’s specific manner to unite the question of the disruption of presence to the question of writing. [32] Second, this not only shows how time contaminates the internal discourse of both conveying and receiving subject, it also reveals the main difference between Husserl and Derrida. [35] It is at this moment where we become lost in the crisis of meaning. I also wrote another post about V&P here (in April 2020). Introduction to the Problem of the Sign in Husserl's Phenomenology, Jacques Derrida, Translated from the French by Leonard Lawlor. [6] Simply put, the expressive sign is entangled with the indicative sign of Bedeutung, where it points to the expression of “want-to-say”. Published in 1967, when Derrida is 37 years old, Voice and Phenomenon appears at the same moment as Of Grammatology and Writing and Difference.All three books announce the new philosophical project called “deconstruction.” Although Derrida will later regret the fate of the term “deconstruction,” he will use it throughout his career to define his own thinking. Speech and Phenomena: And Other Essays on Husserl's Theory of Signs, or Voice and Phenomenon: Introduction to the Problem of the Sign in Husserl's Phenomenology, (French: La Voix et le Phénomène) is a book about the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, published in 1967 alongside Derrida's Of Grammatology and Writing and Difference. [26] Derrida, Voice and Phenomenon, 53, 72. One can easily introduce Husserl, founder of the school of thought known as phenomenology, and move to Derrida… Key Features . Derrida, Voice and Phenomenon, 3,15. Greeted from its publication in 1967 as a remarkable work, its influence has nevertheless suffered because of the simultaneous appearance of two other books which were more varied in composition and were without doubt more easily accessible: Of Grammatology and Writing and Difference. The nice thing about Voice and Phenomenon is that it is short and focused. Husserl wishes to maintain the difference between indication and expression in order to show how pure expression is possible through indicative signs that occurs within silent monologue. Voice and Phenomenon is a short book, but it can be an overwhelming text, particularly for inexperienced readers of Derrida's work. Allison as Speech and Phenomena .. Only in relation to Husserls philosophy is it possible to understand the novelty of Derridas thinking. To adapt Derrida’s comment on Husserl’s Logical Investigations, it contains “the germinal structure” of Derrida’s entire thought. A Close Reading on Jacques Derrida’s Voice and Phenomenon. It is extensively discussed in Of Grammatology when Derrida deconstructs Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Essay on the Origin of Languages. [34] For example, in Plato’s Pharmacy, Derrida questions the translation of “pharmakon” which can at once mean “remedy” and “poison”. This linearity is also recognized in writing when one reads through time. Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) was an incredibly prolific writer. University of Chicago Press, 1982. Derrida's Voice and Phenomenon : an Edinburgh philosophical guide. Derrida's Voice and Phenomenon: An Edinburgh Philosophical Guide Description This work provides a detailed analysis of Derrida's 1967 book,Voice and Phenomenon, contextualizing it in the broader history of French receptions of the phenomenological tradition. Then I would no longer have to pass through the mediation of the physical side.”. [28] Yet, by privileging such perceptions as presence, one not only forgets the effects of time, but how these perceptions and monologue are imagined representations of the present which has now past. “The voice is consciousness”. File:Derrida Jacques Speech and Phenomena and Other Essays on Husserl's Theory of Signs 1973.pdf For Derrida, the concept of trace, which can only be defined through specific phenomenological and ontological precautions, is the origin of thought. In this essay, I will address Derrida’s thoughts on how intentionality and temporality contaminate the purity of expression through Husserl’s concepts of indicative and expressive sign. Lawlor's fresh translation of Voice and Phenomenon brings new life to Derrida's most seminal work. The conveying subject is the receiving subject who “hears-oneself-speak”. Voice and Phenomenon therefore may be the best introduction to Derrida's thought in general. [12] The conveying subject expresses their phenomenological experience within their soul because they desire to express (i.e. Derrida refers to this pointing as “the point of the finger”, which is entangled as an expression. For Derrida, time is non-linear via the “now” being constituted by retention. Bibliography Lawlor’s fresh translation of Voice and Phenomenon brings new life to Derrida’s most seminal work. This is a reading group focusing on Jacques Derrida's seminal 1967 text, La Voix et la Phénomenè.We will be reading it in English translation as: Voice and Phenomenon, tr. [12] Ibid., 32. Published in 1967, when Derrida is 37 years old, Voice and Phenomenon appears at the same moment as Of Grammatology and Writing and Difference. As such, Derrida refers to language as always being “worked over by fiction”. This will lead us to one of the major themes of post-structural thought on “the crisis of meaning” which is found prevalent in all forms of arts and literature. Yet, it is from these writings, where the contemporary reader reanimates dead words and rediscover a hidden intention. Furthermore, pure expression is no longer possible when the conveying subject attempts to express their solitary life of the soul externally as indication such as Bedeutung. In Speech and Phenomena, Jacques Derrida situates the philosophy of language in relation to logic and rhetoric, which have often been seen as irreconcilable criteria for the use and interpretations of signs. Certainly, one can say that inner monologue is where we discover pure expressivity, not only because it is closest to the proximity of the soul where the speaker immediately hears-oneself-speak without distance, but because monologue constitutes subjectivity of self and consciousness as such. This is really Husserl’s claim that Derrida is repeating here. … [30] This slight delay implies how the presence of this present moment is only possible through an imaginative supplement of sense which is what the present originally lacks. Ibid., 40. Download it Derrida And The Inheritance Of Democracy books also available in PDF, EPUB, and Mobi Format for read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. [18] In order to address this issue, Husserl will consequently add the terms “expressive referral” (Hinzeigen) and “indicative referral” (Anzeigen). How to Read Jacques Derrida When He is All About How You Read Him? [15] The receiving subject’s intention will contaminate their own experience when they reanimate the indicative sign with an expressive meaning that ignores or greatly deviates from the conveying subject’s intention. From the receiving subject’s point of view, the conveyor’s indicative signs are supplemented (imagined) as expressive signs, even when these indications are part of the conveyor’s animating expression that cannot be past onto the receiver through writing. [7] Most words carry an immediate unity of sense because we already know its expressive meaning. To do this, I will first introduce the entanglement between indicative and expressive signs that one encounters through external communicative acts such as writing. [4] Since all words points to something, the best example of indicative sign is writing. So, for instance inMonolingualism of the Other(1998), Derrida recounts how,when he was in the “lycée” (high school), the Vichyregime in France proclaimed certain interdictions concerning thenative languages of Algeria, in particular Berber. Here, we are introduced with the issue of inter-subjectivity where the receiving subject is never the speaker and we can only experience the world from our own experience. Voice and Phenomenon therefore . First, indicative and expressive signs are impossible to distinguish because they are entangled between the conveying and receiving subject through writing. Translated by Gayatri Chakavorty Spivak. One expresses the self through the intention of animating the indicative sign, giving life to their body and words by turning it into external physical acts such as gestures, speech, or writing. writing) which is reanimated as an expression by the receiving subject. Derrida spells this out in two major steps. Derrida, Voice and Phenomenon, 3,15. In graduate school, I made the mistake of putting Derrida's Voice and Phenomenon (back then still called Speech and Phenomenon) on the reading list for my doctoral comprehensive exam.As I plowed through the dense text multiple times trying to unpack the many layers of meaning hidden in its succinct argumentation, I was terrified about what questions could arise in the oral exam. Abstract. Voice and Phenomenon therefore may be the best introduction to Derrida's thought in general. While Writing and Difference collects essays written over a 10 year period on diverse figures and topics, and Of Grammatology aims its deconstruction at “the age of Rousseau,” Voice and Phenomenon shows deconstruction engaged with the most important philosophical movement of the last hundred years: phenomenology. [34] The longer time passes, the more difficult it is to reconstitute the originary intention of the conveying subject. The supplement is the addition of nothing. The concept of “supplement” is used to take the place of what originally lacks within presence. In order to reduce indication in language and attain once more finally pure expressivity it is therefore necessary to suspend the relation to others. [22] However, for Derrida, such monologue is contaminated by time which is distinguished through the blink of an eye. Last Edited: November 13, 2020. This is recognized through Derrida’s use of “Bedeutung” as an example of indication / expression to show how the receiving subject (i.e. Voice and Phenomenon therefore may be the best introduction to Derrida's thought in general. Voice and Phenomenon therefore may be the best introduction to Derrida's thought in general. [1] Jacques Derrida, Voice and Phenomenon, trans. Lawlor's fresh translation of Voice and Phenomenon brings new life to Derrida's most seminal work. [22] Ibid., 68. “If communication of manifestation is essentially indicative, it is so because the presence of the other’s lived-experience is denied to our originary intuition.”, [17] Ibid., “The relation to the other as non-presence is therefore the impurity of expression. Derrida was born on July 15, 1930 in El-Biar (a suburb of Algiers),Algeria (then a part of France), into a Sephardic Jewishfamily. This is the first guide to clearly explain the structure of his argument, step by step. This intended sign passes externally as indication (i.e. This “dangerous supplement” occurs when the receiving subject substitutes their expressive intention as the conveyor’s. the expression of their concept of life, philosophy, beliefs, etc.). Voice and Phenomenon therefore may be the best introduction to Derrida’s thought in general. What does it mean to call expressions meaningful signs,bedeutsame Zeichen, signs that “want to say” (veulent-dire) something? Derrida’s concerns are directed towards the “pure morphology” (the pure possibility of a meaningful discourse) of such word through grammar and logical a priori of language which Husserl privileged as the telos of “being present”. Jacques Derrida (/ ˈ d ɛr ɪ d ə /; French: [ʒak dɛʁida]; born Jackie Élie Derrida; July 15, 1930 – October 9, 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher best known for developing a form of semiotic analysis known as deconstruction, which he discussed in numerous texts, and developed in the context of phenomenology. Translated by Alan Bass. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Voice and Phenomenon: Introduction to the Problem of the Sign in Husserl's Phenomenology by Deceased Jacques Derrida (Paperback, 2010) at the best online prices at eBay! From the perspective of the receiving subject, not all indicative signs that the conveying subject expresses indicatively are expressive. The Test of the Sign: An Investigation of Voice and Phenomenon Part Four: The Turn in Derrida Looking for Noon at Two O'Clock: An Investigation of Specters of Marx Reception. To adapt Derrida's comment on Husserl's Logical Investigations, it contains "the germinal structure" of Derrida's entire thought. Jacques Derrida was a .. [5] Ibid., 7-8. An indicative sign does not say anything, where it simply points, and an expressive sign, mixed with an indicative sign, “wants-to-say” by pointing to the unity of sense. Jacques Derrida’s Speech and Phenomena has met with a strange destiny. Although this should not always be seen as negativity, it becomes apparent that one only reads what they desire to read under a particular “sense” (modern sense, surreal sense, classical sense, etc.) There are a few mistakes in this essay that needs correction. ———Voice and Phenomenon. Published in 1967, when Derrida is 37 years old, Voice and Phenomenon appears at the same moment as Of Grammatology and Writing and Difference. To adapt Derrida's comment on Husserl's Logical Investigations, it contains "the germinal structure" of Derrida's entire thought. Olga Vyacheslavovna Medvedeva, Purdue University. Get this from a library! Published in 1967, Voice and Phenomenon marked a crucial turning point in Derrida… [33] In another words, the conveying subject’s intention is supplemented as if it were present, even when this imaginary intention only consists of the receiver’s inner monologue which is complicated by their own experience of temporality. Our attempts in transmitting pure expression through speech and writing is impossible. Johns      Hopkins University Press, 1997. There are also wordy sentences that needs to be rewritten and parts where I make leaps in my writing which makes it confusing. Because Derrida’s writing concerns auto-bio-graphy(writing about one’s life as a form of relation to oneself),many of his writings are auto-biographical. As we noted earlier, this is where we see how intentionality plays an important role on interpreting communicative acts. Derrida does not translate bedeutung in his works because (I think) he is trying to show how bedeutung is actually a bedeuten—a “want to say”, where the problem of intentionality via the transcendental arises. Derrida And The Inheritance Of Democracy Derrida And The Inheritance Of Democracy by Samir Haddad. If the indicative sign is external, then it must be outside of our internal “solitary life of the soul”. [8] This implies that indicative signs are external signs that exists in the world because it functions like a medium that transmits the possibility of expressive meaning from the conveyor to the receiving subject. As we will see in the conclusion of this essay, the notion of pure expression via speech and writing will be rendered problematic before the subject expresses externally through communicative acts. [29] The intended self-presence within hearing-oneself-speak stems from a represented perception which makes the establishment of presence and meaning late. [32] Derrida sometimes refers to this as the “origin heterogeneous”. The common conception on the movement of time is experienced as a straight line. The term “soul” implies a living entity who animates / gives life to a nonliving or inanimate object. [31] By constituting consciousness through inner monologue, the temporal division of self-reflection becomes an unavoidable and originary contamination. Voice and Phenomenon Book Summary : Published in 1967, when Derrida is 37 years old, Voice and Phenomenon appears at the same moment as Of Grammatology and Writing and Difference. [24] In Husserl’s phenomenology of time consciousness, the present moment of now that is established through primal impression is only possible through the retention of this moment which had just past (the words you just read through time). In chapter 3 ofSpeech and Phenomena, Derrida grants Husserl the claimed separation of expression and indication in order to follow what Husserl is able to do on this basis. Voice and Phenomenon is a short book, but it can be an overwhelming text, particularly for inexperienced readers of Derrida's work. Consequently, the written German word Bedeutung must point us to something other than its ideal sense. the “newness of now”), I am referring to protention. [26] Thus, inner monologue—the pure expressive self and consciousness—is contaminated by our experience of time. In Speech and Phenomena, Derrida .. Jacques Derrida, born in Algiers in . This essay was written in Chicago style where the endnotes are actually footnotes in the real version. I also did not address why indication “points”. Leonard Lawlor (Northwestern University Press, 2011), 70. [19] Following closely to Husserl’s thoughts of finding the purity of expression, Derrida attempts to separate the indicative and expressive sign by isolating the spatial (external; empirical; indicative) from the temporal (internal; time-consciousness; inner-monologue). This is the first guide to clearly explain the structure of his argument, step by step. As Derrida points out, “Blindness to the supplement is the law”. Page citations below are taken from this edition. [7] Here, we encounter two fundamental issues. Finally, I will follow Derrida on Husserl’s thoughts to isolate indication from expression only to discover that pure expression is contaminated by the consciousness of time. Jacques Derrida was a professor of philosophy at the Sorbonne, the Ecole Normale Supérieure, and the University of California, Irvine, and the author of numerous books including, Copyright 2020 by Northwestern University Press, Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy. Husserl refers to the isolation of the spatial as “phenomenological reduction”. Voice and Phenomenon is a short book, but it can be an overwhelming text, particularly for inexperienced readers of Derrida's work. Leonard Lawlor (Northwestern University Press, 2011), 70. [31] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 69. The impurity of expression stems from the lack of intended self-presence of the living soul which cannot be carried into indicated / expressed signs through the outside world because words are inherently dead. Indicative sign is equivalent to the Saussurean concept of “Signifier”. This is experienced in our initial encounter of Bedeutung without knowing its expressive meaning. I forgot that this post existed until someone emailed me about it. In order to privilege presence, one negates its inherent absence. [11] When the conveying subject expresses indicatively, such sign must first be animated by their solitary life of the soul with an intention to express. It has often been considered that the most important part of Derrida’s work consisted in the five books published between 1967 and 1972. To adapt Derrida’s comment on Husserl’s Logical Investigations, it contains “the germinal structure” of Derrida’s entire thought. In 20th century, French philosopher Jacques Derrida came to a radical conclusion that our experience of temporality divides self-reflection. Translator's introduction: The germinal structure of Derrida's thought -- Translator's note -- Introduction -- Sign and signs -- The reduction of indication -- Meaning as soliloquy -- Meaning and representation -- The sign and the blink of an eye -- The voice that keeps silent -- The originative supplement. Lawlor's fresh translation of Voice and Phenomenon brings new life to Derrida's most seminal work. First, self-expression is no longer pure the moment we express outwardly—even before represented expression arises from the solitary life of the soul. [33] Ibid., 149. The point, however, seems pretty uncontroversial to me. you, the reader) is engaged with their own animating intentions instead of the conveying subject’s. [4] Ibid., 40. To adapt Derrida's comment on Husserl's Logical Investigations, it contains "the germinal structure" of Derrida's entire thought. ———Margins of Philosophy. To see how we arrive at such case, let us begin by extrapolating Derrida’s thoughts on Husserl’s problem of the sign. In general, this essay received positive feedback from professors in English and Philosophy department at my university. This originary supplement is introduced in the final chapter of Voice and Phenomenon. Derrida realizes how the temporal (internal) cannot be completely distinguished from the spatial (external) because the internal voice is complicated by our consciousness of time which opens up “the becoming time of space [external] and the becoming space of time [internal]” (Derrida, Of Grammatology, 68). [25] Retention is not constituted by our primal impression because it is an imaginary perception. All three books announce the new philosophical project called “deconstruction.” Although Derrida will later regret the fate of the term “deconstruction,” he will use it throughout his career to define his own thinking. For example, I did not address how Derrida translates the German word “Bedeuten” into “Bedeutung” (thanks to the prof who pointed this out). show more This pure morphology is also found in the word “is” within the fundamental question of philosophy: “What is being?”. I also gave my essay a lame title due to it being a sample writing. [27] For Husserl, the subject will imagine as if they were silently speaking to themselves, even when they have no need to do so since their perception of psychical acts and lived experiences are immediately present. [23] If pure expression via inner monologue is represented in our minds through the movement of time, then they must have nothing to do with primal impressions (perception and senses) which constitutes the present moment. Although schematic, this section succeeds in furnishing and clearly explaining the starting points necessary for understanding Derrida’s argument in Voice and Phenomenon, the most important of which Cisney affirms is the Husserlian distinction between “expression” and “indication” (26), and the related notions of “the living present,” “protention,” and “retention.” (29–32) Thus, all communication consists of two poles: (1) the conveying subject whose intention animates her body into an expressive act via gestures, speech or writing, which externally indicates to (2) the receiving subject who interprets and reanimates the conveyer’s indication with their own expressive intentions and soul. Leonard Lawlor (Northwestern University Press, 2011), 70. As a result, this turns inner monologue into non-perception (without primal impression of sense) because it has always been represented and imagined. [14] By reading the word Bedeutung, the receiving subject turns the term into an ideal sense of expression—where sense wants to signify itself even if the reader does not know its expression or is not aware of the word’s historical intentions. The animated sign that is expressed outwardly becomes corruptible through the possibilities of being misinterpreted in external communicative discourse. From this, I will elaborate on how the conveying (speaker / writer) and receiving subject (auditor / reader) animates these signs through the intentionality of their internal “solitary life of the soul”[2] which creates the issues of interpretation. The conveying subject internally hears herself speak as she performs external speech or written acts. The “now” is “the deferred effect of which Freud speaks”. Derrida intentionally avoids translating Bedeutung for a reason slightly different to what I have demonstrated here. This is a revised version of my essay that I wrote on Jacques Derrida’s key text, Voice and Phenomenon (1967). Leonard Lawlor, Northwestern University Press, 2011. Academia.edu is a platform for academics to share research papers. [25] Derrida, Of Grammatology, 67-73. But it is also here, where we recognize the issues of translation. When I speak of the word “now” (i.e. He saw that, since indications are external, pure expression can only occur without it leaving our internal solitary life of the soul—namely, without it leaving our inner silent monologue. Bedeutung is often translated into “signification”. [17] This leads to a question which carries out the rest of Derrida’s deconstruction on Husserl: if for the conveying subject, expression is only possible from animating the indicative sign as external acts, does she learn anything about herself when she silently expresses through inner monologue which never passes through the outside? The receiving subject can never experience the conveying subject’s pure expression and intentions through external indications.[16]. Husserl will devote much of his effort to untangle indication from the expressive sign to reach the “purity of expression”. Indicative sign is equivalent to the Saussurean concept of “Signifier”. Among French intellectuals of the late twentieth century, Jacques Derrida stood apart as one of the most controversial and influential. Voice and Phenomenon therefore may be the best introduction to Derrida’s thought in general. Derrida and the Inheritance of Democracy provides a theoretically rich and accessible account of Derrida's political philosophy.. This is the first guide to clearly explain the structure of his argument, step by step. Translated by Leonard Lawlor. For Derrida, indicative signs are always already an expression that is influenced by time as the receiving subject engages with it. The reason Derrida calls it “want-to-say” is due to the problems of the receiving subject’s intentionality (yours), something which we will see later on in this essay. For Derrida, this was pursued only to discover that neither oppositions can be distinguished from each other. This is a word that was invented by Nambikwara tribe which means “act of writing” or “drawing lines”. Notice how the meaning of this word refers to external expressive acts. There is no such thing as “clear writing”. Kas Saghafi referred to Derrida and Husserl as the "first [10] Jacques Derrida, Of Grammatology, trans. [20] Within inner monologue of the conveying subject, expressive communicative acts functions as a representation of sense. From the perspective of the conveying subject, expressions must pass from their internal solitary life of the soul outwardly into an intended external bodily expressive act. Jacques Derrida, Voice and Phenomenon, trans. The receiving subject will intentionally animate Bedeutung without knowing its expressive meaning because they are motivated by their internal thoughts (inner monologue). Derrida, Jacques. Even after reduction, the spatial is never completely reduced because space is in time. Introduces you to Derrida's historical context, with special attention to the importance of Husserl's thought Speech and Phenomena VI, “The Voice that Keeps Silence” Derrida is talking about two aspects of language that Husserl identifies: expression (Ausdruck) and indication (Anzeichen). Lawlor's fresh translation of Voice and Phenomenon brings new life to Derrida's most seminal work. For the receiving subject, the indicative experience of Bedeutung lies in how they don’t know its expressive meaning (they don’t know where it points). Lacanian Psychoanalysis: The Mirror Stage and the Wound of Split Subjectivity, Lacanian Psychoanalysis and the Subversion of the Split Subject, Deconstruction and the Resistances of Psychoanalysis, On Quentin Meillassoux: Speculative Realism and the Necessity of Contingency, Reflections of a Decade: From Photography to Philosophy. One can also say that language is always worked over by history. Jacques Derrida, Voice and Phenomenon, trans. It introduces you to Derrida's historical context, with special attention to the importance of Husserl's thought. Lawlor’s fresh translation of Voice and Phenomenon brings new life to Derrida’s most seminal work. In the final analysis, three main ideas are presented in this essay. Indicative sign is equivalent to the Saussurean concept of “Signifier”. (See also, Derrida, Voice and Phenomenon, 71-73). Conversely, the receiving subject also hears herself speak internally as she reanimates external indicative signs from silent reading or listening. Expression denotes the aspect of meaning that we give to a linguistic sign. [3] An indicative sign points to something, it does not have a “Bedeutung” (we will translate this word momentarily). We can also say that consciousness is constructed by the unconscious—of what Derrida calls “Spacing” or “Archi-Writing” that is found within “the fabric of trace”. This essay focuses on a Kantian reading of Derrida which excludes Heidegger, who is central to Derridean thought (I was limited to 10 pages). Similarly, our body which is indicative and external to our soul, is inanimate without she who intentionally animates it from her internal soul (otherwise, our body would be dead).