Search

This is a review of the book of R. Esposito, Le persone e le cose. Torino: Einaudi, 2014, pp. 136, € 10,00.

Ci pare indubbio che il Novecento filosofico (non meno di quello letterario o artistico), per lo meno a partire dalla sua seconda metà, abbia circoscritto, accerchiato e poi dismesso il suo principale avversario, vale a dire la nozione di soggettività, così come era stata ereditata dalla tradizione moderna di ascendenza cartesiana. Non sarebbe difficile mostrare quanto, a partire da questo punto di vista, pensatori assolutamente eterogenei come Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, Ernst Mach o Ludwig Klages, con tonalità e modi radicalmente differen- ti, abbiano tutti manifestato una medesima e generale inquietudine nei confronti del soggettivismo proprio della tradizione filosofica occidentale.

In this essay I would like to propose a reinterpretation of certain passages of the earlier Derrida’s works, specifically on Edmund Husserl. I will focus mainly on his dissertation (Mémoire d’études superieures) and his Introduction to the Husserlian appendix The origin of geometry. My purpose is to point out some aspects that I consider relevant for the development of the following Derrida’s philosophy. First of all, I’ll try to take into account the concept of dialectic in his transition from Kant to Husserl. Then, starting from Derrida’s interpretation of The Lectures on Internal Time-Consciousness, I’ll try to explain the meaning of what could be described as an aesthetic refoundation of the transcendental. In these early stages Derrida attempted to lay the foundation of what he’ll then call “quasi-transcendental”. From this perspective, we might note that the deconstructive reading – as such – involves a phenomenological attention towards the original contamination between the conditions of possibility and the empirical field. Therefore, the exercise of deconstruction has something to do with difference as différance from the very beginning.

In this paper I will demonstrate how, in Derrida's approach to Husserl, phenomenology is to be understood through the notions of sound and space. First, I will show how the deconstruction of Husserl's phonologocentrism leads to a repositioning of the traditional concept of sound. Then, I will emphasize the relevance of the spatial element and its rhythmic dynamism. Under these premises, I will present my interpretive hypothesis, that in Derrida's thought there persists a transcendental dimension as a new transcendental aesthetics.