Tag: Create Footnotes

Basic Information

The supplement is an additional element added from the outside, but can also be understood as but it can also be understood as supplying what is missing; in this way, is already inscribed within that to which it is added. In this way the word, “supplement” seems to account for “the strange unity” of two gestures (Bernasconi 19). The result of supplementing these words often is easiest when used within the theory of double reading.

Function In Essay

Le Supplement is mentioned in the essay much more in passing than gone into at any depth; it is presented in a list of Derrida’s most notable terms throughout his philosophical works. While not as important in the essay, however, it does help us to help flesh out some of our understanding of binaries and the spaces lacking thereof.

Further Information

The term le supplement works in tandem with Jean-Jacques Rosseau’s more rigid sense of binary opposites, both in terms of creating a dyadic relationship between sharp polar differences and shading the previously blank spaces in between. It is perhaps a more challenging subject to completely come to grips with, but not entirely incomprehensible with a little bit of research into the matter.

Works Cited

Colebrook, Claire. Jacques Derrida: Key Concepts. Routledge, 2015.

Basic Information

Le Pharmakon, the route of the English term “pharmaceutical,” refers to a triad of impacts that a particular substance can provide: poison, medicine, or scapegoat. Something that can heal has the power to hurt in the wrong hands, and vice versa. It is in part the sense that the pain that we cause others can be diverted by transmuting it into something new, or can be blamed (scapegoated) for the conscious actions of others; in philosophical terms, it refers to the ethical stance of the dyadic (and very morally gray) lines between good and evil, in a sense, and the significant debt we owe one another in upholding our responsibilities to one another.

Function In Essay

The term is all but mentioned in the essay in passing, amidst a number of Derrida’s other terms which help us to understand deconstruction and his other contributions to philosophy. The essay gave more of a brief overview of the majority of these, including some other notes such as le supplement and others.

Further Information

The most commonly used example of Le Pharmakon is present in the Phaedrus, where Plato provides the example of Theuth creating a symbol to represent all of the works of art existing in the world. Prior to judgement from the other gods, he pronounces his creation as a godsend (pun intended), stripping it of its previously neutral connotations, or “replacing an unknown for a known” (54 Durate). In order to gain the other god’s favor, he needs to prove that not only will the totem stand in as something that is positive for humanity, but potentially life-changing for all that come involved with it – a sort of medicine, opposed to poison, on the human mind. It is often true that this sort of redirect is used within scholarly communities and even as a basis for the value of other people’s work and ethics; is what is being put out into the world harmful or helpful? Even if it is helpful, is it something that can be twisted into something far more sinister, and become a toxin in of itself by misattribution? This is there the concept becomes somewhat more risky, as intention doesn’t necessarily matter; when we take things out of context and follow through with Death of the Author, we have the potential to poison beneficial words and vice versa.

Works Cited

McCarthy-Nielsen, Patrick. “Education as Pharmakon: Plato and Derrida’s Dialectic on Learning.” Philosophy of Education Archive (2016): 152-158.

Basic Information

Positions was a collection of essays in which Derrida went through his terms in previous works, such as Dissemination and other more complicated works of deconstruction. They were crucial in outlining and configuring his prior outlines in a more digestible way for the readers.

Function In Essay

In the essay, it is used primarily as the source for Derrida’s more complex concepts, such as “hundred blanks” and others. The work itself is not so much the focus as much as a brief look into what information it could potentially hold for the reader, and little more than that.

Further Information

Critics often felt some resentment towards Derrida’s works due to the fact that they were complex, lengthy, and not the easiest to look into even from more sophisticated scholars. Derrida himself countered the criticism with the assertion that readers were not reading deeply enough into his prose, and therefore fell short on their understanding. His recommendation of double reading (reading the same book again to gain additional insight) was unpopular with his readers, and he later revised those down to more simplified terms in Positions.

Works Cited

Derrida, Jacques. Positions: Entretiens Avec Henri Roux, Julia Kristeva, Jean-Louis Houdebine, Guy Scarpetta. Minuit, 1972.

Basic Information

Translated approximately to “the double session,” it is a philosophical phenomenon wherein by moving forward with an explanation, there will always be something added, and something removed in order to maintain a delicate equilibrium. These variables will not always be the same concepts or phenomena, each time, but are revised to help an audience get a better (if not somewhat more complex) understanding of the situation. It pairs well with Derrida’s concept of double reading, where a text is read numerous times in order to get a greater understanding and better digest proper terms involved within it. However, one must always be careful which details they decide to remove and which to add in; the equilibrium can be tricky to achieve if not carefully attended to.

Function In Essay

In the context of the essay, the double session is mentioned after a slew of terms which Derrida coined in various works. “La double séance” is mentioned with specific regard to an essay in Dissemination, one of his works on deconstruction. It is much less explored in length in the essay than used as an anchoring point, much as the other terms are used as examples. It sets the stage for the example that is yet to come.

Additional Information

The initial example of La Double Séance seems to be present with a tale about two mimes, wherein delving deeper into the tale various information is removed and added in order to make sense of the current predicament. This thematic story is present throughout Dissemination and another of the other works simplified in Derrida’s essay collective Positions.

Works Cited

De Nooy, Juliana. “The Double Scission: Dällenbach, Doležel, and Derrida on Doubles.” Style, vol. 25, no. 1, 1991, pp. 19–27. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42945881. Accessed 27 Feb. 2021.

Regier, W. G. “Delible Derrida.” Prairie Schooner, vol. 57, no. 3, 1983, pp. 92–94. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40631218. Accessed 27 Feb. 2021.