The Movement of Showing: Indirect Method, Critique, and Responsibility in Derrida, Hegel, and Heidegger (SUNY Series in Contemporary French Thought)

This book explores the idea shared by Derrida, Hegel, and Heidegger that the value of their thought is not found in its results or conclusions, but in its "movement." All three describe the heart of their work in terms of a pathway, development, or movement that seems to deprive their thought of a solid ground. Johan de Jong argues that this is a structural vulnerability that is the source of its value, tracing Derrida's indirect method from his early to later works, and critically considering his engagements with Hegel and Heidegger. De Jong's analysis locates an affinity among Hegel, Heidegger, and Derrida in a shared distrust of externality and, against the grain of some Levinasian commentaries, argues that Derrida's indirectness results in an ethics of complicity. The Movement of Showing answers a central question that many polemics about continental philosophy and postmodernism revolve around, namely: with which methods does one philosophize responsibly? It shows the difference between critique and polemics, and why simply taking up a position for or against is insufficient in order to think responsibly. "The Movement of Showing investigates the idea, shared by Derrida, Hegel and Heidegger, that the value of their thought is not found in its results or conclusions, but in its "movement." All three describe the heart of their work in terms of a pathway, development, or movement rather than in terms of its propositions or conclusions. This seems to deprive their thought of a solid ground, and indeed deconstruction in particular is often criticized in this way. Johan de Jong argues that this is a structural vulnerability that is both its weakness and the source of its value, tracing Derrida's indirect method from his early to later works, and considering his engagements with Hegel and Heidegger. His analysis locates an affinity among Hegel, Heidegger and Derrida in a shared distrust of externality and, against the grain of some Levinasian commentaries, argues that Derrida's indirectness results in an ethics of complicity. The Movement of Showing answers a central question that many polemics about continental philosophy and postmodernism revolve around concerning how, methodologically, one can philosophize responsibly. It shows the difference between critique and polemics, and why simply taking up a position for or against is insufficient in order to think responsibly"-- Provided by publisher Dedication 6 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 12 Abbreviations 14 Introduction 20 PART I: SOURCES OF DERRIDA’S INDIRECTNESS: LANGUAGE, METAPHYSICS, CRITIQUE 36 1 Why There Can Be No Derridean Theory of Language 38 2 The Inextricability of Metaphysics 66 3 The Question of Justification and the Law of Resemblance: Empiricism—Skepticism—Critique 86 PART II: MOVEMENT AND OPPOSITION: FROM HEGEL TO DERRIDA 118 4 Hegel’s Movement of the Concept and the Limits of the Understanding 120 5 Derrida’s “Textual Maneuvers”: Exceeding the Opposition to Hegelianism Contributions 158 PART III: HEIDEGGER: THE PRESERVATION OF CONCEALMENT 188 6 The Transition to Transitional Thinking: From Being and Time to the Contributions 190 7 Reticence and Exposition: Heidegger’s Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event) 220 PART IV: OF DERRIDA’S HEIDEGGERS: STYLE, AFFIRMATION, RESPONSIBILITY 254 8 The Question of Style: Heidegger, Nietzsche and the Heterogeneity of the Text 256 9 Strategy and Responsibility: Derrida, Heidegger, and the Ethics of Complicity 276 Afterword: Philosophical Indirections 298 Notes 310 Bibliography 350 Index 366