File spoon-archives/bhaskar.archive/bhaskar_1998/bhaskar.9804, message 11


From: Colin.Wight-AT-aber.ac.uk (Colin Wight)
Subject: Re: BHA: Re: Heteronomy (I think!)
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 17:26:26 +0100


Hi Alan,

I accept the attempt to view Derridean deconstruction as a form of
dialectic, I'm just not sure that Derrida would, or his many supporters.
Norris, of course has been engaged in attempting to rescue Derrida from the
poststructuralists - at least the anti-realists ones. And I suppose that it
is on this issue that things might get sticky. It was noticeable that at the
recent Bhaskar/Laclau talk that the debate hinged on the issue of
anti-realism in Derridean inspired discourse theory.

We can of course, simply brush aside some of the anti-realist formulations
in Derrida and focus on his claims to be critiquing idealism, but wouldn't
that simply be selective (mis)appropriation and the attributing to Derrida
some control over the meaning of the text. I'm not sure, I've always myself
viewed Derrida as more of a CR'er than a poststructuralist, but this doesn't
stop my poststructuralist colleagues going ballistic. Also not all
contradictions can be viewed as dialectical. Often analytic accounts have a
lot going for them; what I mean here is the way in which they expose errors
of thinking - Heidegger's seeming commitment to realism being undercut by
his account of being. Isn't this part and parcel of what makes
theory/practice inconsistencies so important?

Just some thoughts,

BTW, if anyone out there interested in Dialectic wants an easy publication.
I'm sure the Hegel Bulletin of Britain would love an article comparing
Bhaskar and Hegel's dialectic. 


------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Colin Wight
Department of International Politics
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Tel: (01970) 621769

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