Date: Mon, 16 Jun 1997 14:01:28 -0700 (PDT)
From: Lois Shawver <rathbone-AT-crl.com>
Subject: Re: Lyotard & Derrida



Matt,

Well, I will miss your presence here, and when a copy of your paper on 
Derrida is available, I hope it is possible for me to read it.  I believe 
you invited another brief exchange, however, before you go, so let me 
take advantage of that.

You say
     I think a kind of ethic for Derrida can be derived from 
     Glas and his confrontation with Hegel, Christianity, and 
     logocentrism--

but to use a phrase that you use later in your post, do you believe his 
deconstruction of logocentrism, etc., actually is meant to "cancel it 
out"?  And if it is not, is his deconstruction an "ethic"?

It always seems to me that Derrida's deconstructions take place on two
levels.  There is the deconstruction itself, and then there is the
reflection on what it means to deconstruct this way.  (Maybe this is what
you mean when you say that he is not reducibele to one approach?)  

When he is on the level of deconstruction, I has a sense, at times, of
an ethical force in his writing.  But, when he switches to the reflection
on deconstruction (which is what is most unique about his writing), then I
have a hard time holding onto anything prescriptive.  I don't even see the
dictum that we should deconstruct in his writing.  Do you? 

But when he is deconstructing another's work, I can see an ethical force 
at work, and your comments about his deconstruction of the writings of 
Levi-Strauss and Rousseau seem to me to be examples of this ethical 
force.  It is just that he withdraws into such a detached level of 
reflection (as when in "The Ear of the Other" he says that he is not 
really supporting "writing" over "speech") that I have trouble tracking 
the ethical vector of his work.  

But maybe this is what you are implying when you say that you feel his 
work is not reducible to ethics, but ethical anyway.  Maybe I am saying 
that if there is a substantial remainder (that fascinates me), then I am 
less conscious of the ethical dimension.

Thanks for your discussion.  I hope you can reply before you leave, and I 
hope I see a copy of your Derridean paper.  Have you done anything els 
eon Derride that is available?

..Lois Shawver