This book presents a critique of Derrida from a Nietzschean perspective. Questioning the often-advertised association between Nietzsche and Derrida, it focuses instead on important differences and incompatibilities between Nietzsche’s naturalistic paradigm and Derrida’s textual paradigm. Peter Bornedal argues that Nietzsche’s position points us toward a pragmatic and constructionist epistemology based on a naturalist world-view, which was cutting-edge in his days, while Derrida’s epistemology reduces theories of knowledge to a general textualism. In short, Nietzsche is not the predecessor of deconstruction—or, generally, postmodernism—that he is often portrayed to be. His thinking does not advocate postmodernism’s suspension of truth, reason, logic, and understanding, but rather replicates the paradigms of emerging disciplines of his day, such as biology, psychology, cognitive science, and linguistics. His thinking is not playfulness for its own sake and does not defend formal transcendentalist principles such as ‘différance.’ The Barren Epistemology of Jacques Derrida: A Critique of Deconstruction from a Nietzschean Perspective argues instead that Derrida’s introduction of the supposedly novel différance-logic may be analyzed as a transcendentalist validation of logical errors often addressed in earlier Western thinking in order to be avoided, such as the contradiction in Aristotle, or the paralogism in Kant. With this critical view, the work re-examines différance-thinking and questions whether inconsistencies are manufactured rather than discovered in deconstructionist interpretation.
By:
Peter Bornedal
Imprint: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 236mm,
Width: 159mm,
Spine: 22mm
Weight: 494g
ISBN: 9781666927177
ISBN 10: 1666927171
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 15 January 2024
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction Chapter 1: Paralogism of Writing: Introducing a Difference between writing and Writing Chapter 2: The Anti-Logic of Différance: Self-Contradiction Raised to Transcendental Law Chapter 3: Signifier, Signified, and the Continuum: A Nietzsche-Saussurean Epistemology Chapter 4: Intentions of Speaker and Speech: Defending Speech-Acts and Ordinary Language Chapter 5: The ‘Gay Science’ of Derrida: Nietzsche’s Thinking as Playful Différance-Logic Chapter 6: Nietzsche versus Derrida: On Truth, Presence, Metaphysics, Woman, and Nihilism Conclusion
Peter Bornedal is professor emeritus of philosophy and civilization studies at the American University of Beirut.
Reviews for The Barren Epistemology of Jacques Derrida: A Critique of Deconstruction from a Nietzschean Perspective
Peter Bornedal provides us with an insightful critical analysis of Jacques Derrida's neo-transcendentalist and neo-intellectualist program. His essay explores the epistemological universe that lies at the core of Derrida's philosophy, paying special attention to Derrida's engagement with Nietzsche. As a result, Bornedal deals a major blow to the postmodern reading of Nietzsche as a mirror of Deconstruction. --Pietro Gori, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
