Concept
Différance
Overview
Différance is a French term coined by Jacques Derrida. Roughly speaking, the method of différance is a way to analyze how signs (words, symbols, metaphors, etc) come to have meanings. It suggests that meaning is not inherent in a sign but arises from its relationships with other signs, a continual process of contrasting with what comes before and later. That is, a sign acquires meaning by being different from other signs. The meaning of a sign changes over time, as new signs keep appearing and old signs keep disappearing. It is central to Derrida's concept of deconstruction, a critical outlook concerned with the relationship between text and meaning.
However, the meaning of a sign is not just determined by the system of signs present currently. Past meanings leave "traces", and possible future meanings "haunt". The meaning of a sign is determined by the interaction between past traces, future haunts, and the system of signs in the present.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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The æsthetic state represents an overflow _of means of communication_ as well as a condition of extreme sensibility to stimuli and signs. It is the zenith of communion and transmission between living creatures; it is the source of languages. In it, languages, whether of signs, sounds, or glances, have their birthplace. The richer phenomenon is always the beginning: our abilities are subtilised forms of richer…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Will to Power
States what Différance is; the author is tied to Différance in the knowledge graph.
The arena and the object of this struggle is Matter,--which some natural forces alternately endeavour to disintegrate and build up again at the expense of other natural forces,--as also Space and Time, the union of which through causality _is_ this very matter. [2] Mira in quibusdam rebus verborum proprietas est, et consuetudo sermonis antiqui quædam efficacissimis notis signat (Seneca, Epist. 81).--TR.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Early Greek Philosophy & Other Essays Collected Works, Volume Two
The author is tied to Différance in the knowledge graph.
Writing seems to have consisted originally of pictures, which gradually became conventionalized, coming in time to represent syllables, and finally letters on the telephone principle of "T for Tommy." But it would seem that writing nowhere began as an attempt to represent speech it began as a direct pictorial representation of what was to be expressed. The essence of language lies, not in the use of this or that…
Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind
States what Différance is.
Philosophers who discussed Différance
Related ideas
- French language
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Ferdinand de Saussure
- Ancient Greek
- Neologism
- Roland Barthes
- Language
- Music
- Georges Bataille
- Sense and reference
- Perception
- Sigmund Freud
- Structuralism
- Semiotics
- Aufheben
- Empirical evidence
- Memory
- Metaphysics of presence
- Unmoved mover
- Martin Heidegger
- Speech act
- Jacques Derrida
- Apophatic theology
- Bernard Stiegler
Place in the tradition
Part of Deconstruction.