[extropy-chat] PHIL: Derrida and Deconstruction

[Jef Allbright]

Natasha -

In all seriousness (this time) I spent some time a few years ago
exploring postmodernism.  I performed this study with the goal of
understanding a worldview outside of my direct experience and outside my
comfort zone, so as to better understand, relate and communicate with
others who share my world, if not my understanding of it. 

My study was limited to research on the web, some representative
books[1], interaction with a certain assistant professor of rhetoric
familiar with both transhumanism and postmodernism and attending a
documentary film with Q&A with people who knew Derrida intimately.  Not
a complete study, certainly, but enough to familiarize myself with the
some of the substance, the broad outlines, and the style of
postmodernist thought and behavior.

I'm well aware of CP Snow's Two Cultures, and that I am strongly
grounded in the Sciences side while you are strongly grounded in the
Humanities, so I can appreciate that you are skeptical of any
unfavorable criticism from across that great cultural divide. I don't
know if my earlier parody of Derrida's style got in the way of my
message, but I did also offer what I thought were practical pointers
with regard to likely areas of crossover being (1) individual-based
ethics and (2) meaning as completely dependent on interpreter and
context.  Unfortunately, I'm afraid that to go further would require
slogging through text that is far from concise or rigorous in its
exposition of a few truly valuable concepts. 



[1] Some relevant books from my exploration of postmodernist thinking:

_How We Became Posthuman_ by Katherine Hayles
_Representations of the Post-Human_ by Elaine Graham
_Metal and Flesh_ by Joel Slayton
_The Postmodern Adventure, Science, Technology, and Cultural Studies at
the Third Millennium_ by Steven Best, Douglas Kellner

(I think there was a second book by Best and Kellner but I can't find it
in my library right now and I've run out of time to look.)

- Jef



-----Original Message-----
From: Natasha Vita-More [mailto:natasha at natasha.cc] 
Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2006 9:06 AM
To: Jef Allbright
Subject: RE: [extropy-chat] PHIL: Derrida and Deconstruction

At 09:25 PM 10/31/2006, Jeff wrote:



	What might it mean to say, in the semblance of a question, that
Derrida
	and Transhuman had some sort of crossover?  If I were asked this
in a
	personal sense, although not, of course, in the person of
Derrida, but
	rather, as one who might have a sense of some aspect of being
that is
	Derrida, I might answer that it is in large part unknowable, but
in some
	small part I could say that the crossover, however small,
gathers
	meaning from the context of the question, and the questioner.
	Transhumanism as transhumanism has both everything and nothing
to do
	with Derrida, but crossover exists, and derives significance...
	
	Had enough?


No, not really.  What you said in your reply, however well stated, does
not offer the depth that I was hoping for. :-)  Surely you are accurate
and I had already read all this on the Wikipedia site and elsewhere, but
don't believe that Derrida was as much of a fool or machinist that his
critiques said of him.  Maybe I will learn that he is, but I am not so
sure because I tend to rebel against the voice of critiques who
pigeonhole philosophy or politics.



	With regard to crossover with Transhumanism, his moral thinking
was
	strongly influenced by Nietzsche with some obvious implications
apropos
	individual empowerment and piercing the veils of society.  His
message
	of how meaning is derived from context has implications for
those who
	contemplate how meaning might change with accelerating change of
	context.


Yes. 



	While he claimed not be a postmodernist, the similarities are
all too
	apparent and I would hope to avoid the association much as I
would avoid
	a very profound mound of dada.


Postmodernism, postsnodernism - - it is tiresome at best.



	Natasha <http://www.natasha.cc/> Vita-More
<http://www.natasha.cc/>  
	Cultural Strategist - Design Media Artist - Futurist 
	PhD Candidate, Planetary Collegium
<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/researchcover/rcp.asp?pagetype=G&page=273> 
	Proactionary Principle Core Group, Extropy
<http://www.extropy.org/> Institute <http://www.extropy.org/>  
	Member, Association of Professional Futurists
<http://www.profuturists.com/>  
	Founder, Transhumanist Arts & Culture
<http://www.transhumanist.biz/>  
	
	
	If you draw a circle in the sand and study only what's inside
the circle, then that is a closed-system perspective. If you study what
is inside the circle and everything outside the circle, then that is an
open system perspective. - Buckminster Fuller