From Concealment to Différance. Upon a Hidden Foundation of Being from the View-Point of Jan Pato?ka and Jacques Derrida

Abstract

The paper attempts to cast some light on a moment of transition from the discourse of phenomenology, regarded as the very source of Pato?ka’s and Derrida’s works, to its peculiar antithesis or negation that consists in the act of dislodging from belief in the omnipotent human ratio. In order to unveil an extra-ordinary similitude between the comportments of both the thinkers, the crucial terms of concealment, derived from the essays of the Czech philosopher, and of Derrida’s famous différance are to be juxtaposed, and subsequently explored and eventually commented in the paper. In accordance with such a gesture, the paper tends to indicate a hidden foundation of being that reveals itself as a phenomenon impossible to define, or capture in some other, non-lingual modes, since its representation, however necessary, always turns out to be inaccurate. Instead of the so-called final explication, the paper, making a visible usage of Heidegger’s manner of writing “under erasure”, will focus on a secret existence of concealment and of difference due to examine their manifestations, henceforth comprehended as their necessary work or action. Thus both the thinkers are to be considered as the precursors of the post-phenomenology, or “phenomenology above lights”, to quote the quasi-transcendental Lévinas, who devote themselves to the elliptical realm of the hidden.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n9p579