ABSTRACT
At present one of the major philosophical questions to be answered concerns the nature of the present. It is precisely in terms of this question that it becomes possible to situate the plurality of contemporary artistic production. It takes place at the present. Even here a distinction needs to be drawn between what is produced at the present and the totality of what is offered for interpretation. Pluralism invades if not defines both spheres. However the possibility of pluralism was always a risk. The history of philosophy can be understood as an attempt to rid itself of that risk; to quell its disruptive force. However there is more at play here than just philosophy. In addition it would be fair to describe the majority of the human sciences as incorporating the same desire and therefore as being driven in part by an attempt to exclude that type of difference that threatens totality. This attempt can be enacted either by simple exclusion, or in terms of the more sophisticated reduction of the different to a variant of the same, which has the obvious consequence of effacing the specificity of difference.1 These are complex issues and care is needed.
