ABSTRACT
Among the terms Jacques Derrida employs in his deconstructive critique of Western philosophy, of what he calls the “metaphysics of presence,” are logocentrism and différance (1978:279-80). Logocentrism is “the orientation of philosophy toward an order of meaningthought, truth, reason, logic, the Word-conceived as existing in itself, as foundation” (Culler 1982:92; see Derrida 1976: 30 ff). Derrida, who denies the existence of such a foundation, points out that every mental or phenomenal event is a product of difference, is defined by its relation to what it is not rather than by its essence. If nothing can legitimately claim to possess a stable, autonomous identity, then there is nothing which can be invested with the authority of logos. In his discussions of language and linguistics, Derrida refers frequently to Saussure’s double hypothesis that because the relationship between signifier and signified is arbitrary, the production of meaning derives from the interaction of linguistic units, not from additive arrangements of nuggets of meaning contained in words (see, e.g., Derrida 1976:30 ff; 1981a: 17-36; 1982:9 ff). “The difference which establishes phonemes and lets them be heard remains in and of itself inaudible” (Derrida 1982: 5); meaning is produced by the action of something which is not present, which exists only as an absence. Derrida demonstrates that meaning is generated by a productive non-presence he calls différance, defined as “the playing movement that ‘produces,’ but does not precede, differences” (1982:11). The act of signification produces its own significance; there is no transcendent logos, no order of meaning which grounds the activity of signification, no presence behind the sign lending it authority.
