Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1998 09:58:08 +0000
From: William McClure <whogoest-AT-australis.net.au>
Subject: Re: Auto-affection


(j wrote:

is anyone familar with Heidegger's term 'auto-affection'?  I believe he
utilizes it in the kantbuch..or some lectures pertaining to kant type
stuff.....any references and definitions of the term would be greatly
appreciated......)

I am not familiar with Heidegger's use of the term, but Husserl's and
Derrida's.  Derrida looks at the structure of auto-affection in "Speech
and Phenomena".  In that context basically the structure of
auto-affection consists in "hearing-oneself speak" or
"giving-oneself-presence".  It has the negative conotation of mastering
all exteriority in a pure interiority. It is said to involve the
suppression of difference.   In a Kantian context, the "I will" and the
"I think" are also supposed to master all exteriority in an act of
recognition or adoption. Autoaffection is said to have its basis in an
illusion of an undivided self, absolute spontaneity: a being that does
not have to borrow anything from outside itself so as to affect
itself.   

WMc