Critique of Pure Reason1:

One class of {its} [reasons] knowledge2- metaphysics o Metaphysics leads to the highest questions3:

God (the existence of God) Forcing reason to answer/make sense of the question of God: Ideal of

Pure Reason Self (immortality of the soul)

Forcing reason to answer/make sense of the question of the self: Paralogism of Pure Reason

World (freedom) Forcing reason to answer/make sense of the question of the world:

Antinomy of Pure Reason

1 Divided into via negativa and via positiva 2 From the Preface (A) of the Critique of Pure Reason 3 Cannot be known with certainty

Hello, student of Postmodernism! Im Ai Shindou and, at the behest of Ammiel Maestrado, I will try to organize/arrange his notes in a very student-friendly manner. ^^ Anyway, Postmodernism has been described as:

Incredulity towards metanarratives (Lyotard) Precursor: Nietzsche Returns back to the question of truth Indicates that all in Modernity are interpolations; there are

no such thing as truth; the Sophists were right all along Going beyond the Modern paradigm

Lets begin with Kant [SailorKant (^^)] Kant, according to Abulad, is the Father of Postmodernism. Why? It is because of the Critique of Pure Reason.

o The Ideal, Paralogism, and Antinomy of Pure Reason are called Dialectics (illusions; a stalemate), more particularly Transcendental Dialectics (Things we cannot know)

o Metaphysics cannot stand the Critique of Pure Reason; re-echoed by Nietzsche (Death of God)

Completed the project of metaphysics. By doing so, also completed the project of modernity. o Modernity

Deals with the question of science4 5 6; scientific The self is the foundation of science To make sense of reality, we must go back to man, the foundation Knowledge is ultimately phenomena (Kant) Anthropocentric because knowledge can only be human knowledge Science is ultimately philosophy (Hegel) Kant was seen as its pinnacle; but was reacted against by the German Idealists

and others (still continuing the project of modernity) A question of life (Late Modernity)

What can we know: phenomena [Aesthetics (intuition; to perceive) + Logic (Understanding)] Divided into two parts, the first is the critique of knowledge; the second is how to proceed after

the critique7. Kant did something after Modernity. What comes after Kant is after Modernity. To do Postmodernism is to be cognizant of Kant. Three Masters of Suspicion: Marx, Freud, Nietzsche

Husserl

Resuscitated the question of science Started phenomenology/Father of Phenomenology8 (science of beginnings) (science of

essences9)

4 Because it is systematic, it must have a foundation. 5 The social sciences are a product of Positivism. 6 Dialectical materialism is the true science (Orthodox Marxist). 7 After the Critique, there must be a rebuilding cognizant of the Critique. 8 Back to the things themselves (concrete).

Kant is reacted by Hegel and Husserl. But lets begin with Husserl first.

Returns back to Descartes Last part of Modernity His project10 is to secure and understand the foundation of knowledge

o The most concrete of what is given to us is experience. So he begins with experience Begins with consciousness11 (cannot be in the abstract) for his project The property of consciousness is that it is intentional12 (intentional of something)

o Consciousness is a correlate between the I and the object o What connects the I and the object is consciousness o Consciousness does not belong to the world o Consciousness is not determined by the world

We begin with what is given to us (principle of principles (originary givenness13)) Phenomenology begins with reflexion (to think about thinking) We have to open consciousness By examining consciousness, one has to do a reduction (stepping back from the world)

o Leads to a transcendental14 standpoint (from withdrawing from the world15) o What we gather from the transcendental standpoint is a priori and therefore universal o Transcendental standpoint is before experience o Transcendental standpoint can make sense of the ordinary {originary (?)} givenness (?)

epoch16 (suspension of judgment) [necessary in withdrawing from the world] Everything is given via consciousness Phenomenology17 18 is not psychology19

o Problem of Induction Our experience20 (which is not all the time) eventually becomes habit, [and] then

becomes fact. A fact being particular is not necessary.

9 Ideas (form(eidos(Wesen))) 10 Epistemological in nature 11 Descartes conceived of consciousness in the abstract. 12 Consciousness is conscious of something. 13 Content of consciousness 14 a priori 15 By withdrawing [from] the world does not mean denying the world. 16 Bracketing the world 17 Science of true beginnings 18 Rigorous (to strip and look at the foundations) 19 Intends to be natural science; attempts to naturalize consciousness (contingent truths) 20 Particular because it is only a portion

The scientific method works on the induction method. Because it is founded on experience, it cannot arrive at universal truths.

o Psychology is nave (not understanding the basics) Freud

Discovered the unconscious The ego (self) is trapped between the law (superego) and desire (id)

The withdrawal is supposed to take away the biases Transcendental standpoint reaches pure consciousness, then to the pure ego21 (presupposition-

less self). After this one can examine an object in its purest form To communicate the Intuition of Ideas (Wesenschau (seeing of Ideas)), one has to speak about it

(phenomenological description) o Wesenschau leads to apodicticity22 (necessary)

Natural standpoint o Where we begin o Pre-philosophical, contingent, a posteriori

The ego is freed from its empirical commitments (from reduction) Any science is now possible because of phenomenology, because phenomenology is now the

foundation of science He is extending Kant23 (in a sense of extending phenomena into science)

o Very influenced by Kant Synthetic a priori knowledge is possible through phenomenology His phenomenology is only a beginning Free fancy is imagination, opening the object to its possibilities We have to understand originary givenness Does not purport to create a system Not everybody can do the reduction Ideas allow the world to be

21 The pure ego is the source of every mental act, a terminus. It should not be empirical. 22 Apodicticity is indubitable. Because the Ideas is apodictic, it is indubitable. 23 The word phenomenology is present in Kant.

And we move on to Hegel! Oh, not yet, apparently. So, lets stop by Husserls student first, Heidegger.

Heidegger

One of the more important students of Husserl He has a love-hate relationship with Husserl Groomed by Husserl to be the latters heir Dedicated Being and Time to Husserl Expelled Husserl from the university Concerned with the question of Being24 What we know as Being is not actually Being

o [Being is] that which is (Aristotle) o Its study is called metaphysics (Aristotle); ontology (Leibniz)

We have forgotten Being (from the intellectualization of culture) The past conception25 of Being is no longer Being We are no longer talking about Being but entities By intellectualizing, we are defining, taking away from the originariness (?) Parmenides and Heraclitus are actually speaking the same thing To reduce Being26 into human concepts becomes a fallacy (?)

o We cannot universalize Being Thinking cannot be divorced from doing in Being The history of Western metaphysics27 is ontotheology28 Being is not a concept We cannot approach Being directly; we have to be content with what is given to us: entities29 We have to do an ontic detour The entity which is concerned about its Being is the one we can interrogate (Dasein) Human being [is classified as either]:

o Das Man (not concerned about its Being) o Dasein

Dasein cares (Sorge)30 When we care about our existence, the horizon31 opens up and realize

many things Geworfenheit abandonment

24 Fundamental question (What is Being?) 25 Starting from Plato 26 From universalizing Being 27 Categorizing Being; misplacing Being 28 Concerned with entities, not Being 29 beings (seienden) 30 Gives authentic existence; an important attribute 31 In it, Being will appear as a phenomena; subject to time

Dasein is a Being-in-the-world; has the characteristic of throwness (thrown in the world)

Thinking is manifested in asking Being is existence; appears in space and time We are entities that can only grasp things in space and time Aletheia (away from forgetfulness)32 {is either}:

o To uncover o To reveal o The revealing of Being

His phenomenology33 is an existential analytic of Being o Phenomenology is supposed to be uncovering

His question is a question of ontology (shift from Husserl) Language is the way to Being, the house of Being

o Allows Being to appear to us, in its highest form (language of the poets)

Hegel

Introduced to France by Alexander Kojev and Jean Hyppolite Knowledge is Truth is the whole The Spirit is none other than human reason

o The Idea is Reason actualized in its movement The study of the dialectical movement of the Spirit is phenomenology There is no duality; thought is manifested or it is not thought His work is basically the Spirit realizing to become Absolute

o The Phenomenology of Spirit is the story of consciousness unfolding itself, trying to understand itself; from its barest sense34 towards self-consciousness35

{Through self-consciousness,} (we can think about) LogicNatureMindArt ReligionPhilosophy36

32 Truth is aletheia. 33 Method where Dasein reveals Being 34 Animal consciousness 35 Think about thinking; desiring desire

Finally, Hegel!

The process of unfolding is dialectics, occurs in space and time History is the unfolding of the Spirit

o Kojev The end of history is the moment consciousness attains

absolute (?), end of the unfolding of the Spirit The moment that one says he is wrong, he becomes the antithesis to his thesis in his system Because of him (with Heidegger and Husserl), contemporary continental philosophy37 is possible

o Kierkegaard Hegels system has no place for the individual With Nietzsche, lead to Existentialism

When the Spirit reaches the Absolute, it becomes truth itself Because of the negative, the Spirit is able to move forward

o The movement of Spirit is possible through negativity {Negativity is} absence, contradiction, antithesis {Negativity} makes possible to be; [is the] possibility to be

The question of who I am is determined by the question of what I do Thought must be actualized The only science is philosophy; all others are pretending to be science

Bataille

Reacting against Hegel o The desire to be38 is both tragic and incessant.

Conservation {can either be}: Negative (not to do anything) Positive (to do something) (must be understood this way)

o There is no stabilized whole. o What is outside our sense of order is a monster

Interrogates the question of use o Use is subject to cultural & psychological consideration

Gift-exchange is cultural, political, economic, and spiritual (Marcel Mauss)

36 Consciousness is able to realize its absolute form 37 Marxism, Existentialism, Phenomenology 38 being to be whole (fulfillment)

Lets move on to Bataille

Basis: rivalry, violence, a kind of challenge o Power, in its barest form, is deferral of death

Not founded on use Traced back to Hegel: master-slave dialectic

Trying to get away from Hegels system To be truly sovereign is not to be subjected to use, but to waste, destruction, laughter39

o A sovereign is not subject to the calculation of life and death Pointed out the question of autonomous being The notions of autonomy and wholeness are illusions

o Our notions of wholes will be always wrong o Our existence is in a{n} precarious situation; we are always in relation to something else:

unstable wholes Concept of labyrinth

o Place without origins or ends (purpose) o There is no purpose

Employed the transgressive style, to shock us back to realize that we are insufficient, to concrete existence

o The untimely philosopher is the best judge of his time, for he is not following the trend He does not belong anywhere Made the French interpretation of Nietzsche

Derrida

Famous for the project of deconstruction o {Deconstruction is} from destruktion (from Heidegger40)

Heidegger was not radical enough Dominant backgrounds: phenomenology & structuralism

o Structuralism A reaction to phenomenology (all objects are being-for-myself)

To make sense of the oneric (dream), schizophrenic (madness), and mythic (myth), we have to look at their structures

o The unconscious is given away by desire

39 Recognition that the sovereign is in control of himself 40 To return to the source, we have to destroy or circumscribe the history of ontotheology.

Ive heard that Bataille influenced a lot of French philosophers. From the notes, Derrida is the first honorable mention (tee hee!). So, lets stop by Derrida.

Alternative A name that brings fields together (Descombes)

A kind of method Married to semiology

o {Semiology is the} science of signs o An attempt to present an encompassing study of language o Father: Ferdinand de Saussure o Sign encompasses all forms of language

{The sign is} bifurcated to signifier (expression of the audio image of the object) and signified (audio image)

Making a connection between the two is signification

Implications: Language is arbitrary o Our basis of naming something is based

on difference {The sign is} arbitrary but dependent on time41 {The sign is} difference (what makes it this is because it

is not that) There is no such thing as an original name

The process of signs relating to other signs is signification (due to the signifier)

o The French structuralists used semiology to understand the meaning behind structures (?), express structures

It heralded the death of man o Meaning is out there (brings us to the death of man4243

[reaction against subjectivity] A structure is made up of parts that convey a certain theme Concerning itself of objects of empty contents (structures) to models

(Serres) A comparatist method Structures

o {Composed of:} surface structureinformsdeep structure {surface structureinformsdeep structure are}

analyzed A method that gives us meaning when there is isomorphism A movement in France

Deconstruction is plotting against the master

41 Speech community (convention) 42 Merely a product of structures 43 A reaction against human nature

Derrida

The history of structure is as old as epistem (human knowledge), where there is an event (a rupture44, a redoubling45, a scandal46)

Sign is supplement (substitution (the signifier substitutes for the signified) and addition) o Language is just a play.

There is nothing outside the text; meaning is always deferred o The moment we try to capture the signified, the signified becomes a signifier (delay of

meaning Being is just a name for another name (Heidegger enters the rupture); subject to the play of

difference Radicalized de Saussure Prime target of deconstruction: metaphysics of presence47 48 49 (there is privileging)

o To exist is to speak Differance is neither a word nor a concept

o Differance is a neologism. o To show that meaning is always elusive

Differ the signifier is not this (space) Defer the signifier is not this and passed (time)

o If a concept, it is not differance, it becomes not what it is

44 Rupture of the sign (the signifier collapsing the signified, becomes a signifier) 45 The signifier is redoubled (when the signified transforms)

46 Meaning is always delayed 47 Everything has to be there 48 Logos (both being and knowing) (possible only in presence) (truth) 49 Thought

At this point, the notes have segued a bit to Lacan. Its short so Ill just dictate what it says: Lacan

Floating signifiers (ex. Humor) (between something and nothing) are the best way to express desire

When you desire something, the expression of that desire will never be enough

Sorry for that interruption. Lets return to Derrida.

Meaning is elusive We can deconstruct Truth There is no center, no essential structure (what deconstruction shows)

Deconstruction must come from a certain tradition There is no stable position

o Binary opposites dominate metaphysics. Deconstruction shows us that they are just a play of differences

Heidegger is still doing the metaphysics of presence The writing of the phenomenological description enters the problem of language (eidetic

objectivity becomes a name subject to the play of difference) The critique of phenomenology inaugurated the project of deconstruction

o Succession is time o The noema is immanent (in consciousness) and transcendent (outside the world), open

to space and time through hyle The noema does not belong anywhere (anarchy of noema), and opens up yo the

time and the other. Meaning (to be passed down in history, must be grounded in language50) then becomes the other of the object and subject to time.

To reactivate the meaning of language, one must use language. Reading is decodification (connected to [Reactivation is in

consciousness]), writing is codification. Meaning has not yet arrived

Nietzsche

True world {has become} fable world (reversion of Platonism) o If we take away the truth, we cannot say something is false. Everything else is possible o Taking away the true world is taking away the reference, and we lose meaning, then

reality. Baudrillard

Hyperreality is what is there (fable world) Simulation is to feign to have what one does not have (connected to hyperreality) (play of signs

due to the loss of reality) The product of the play of signs is hyperreality

o The body is the graveyard of signs.

50 Fixed in writing

Whoo! Nearly done. Ill just go through the last philosophers in the notes, Nietzsche and Baudrillard, in one go. Theyre connected any way. Lets move on.

Baudrillard

The question of reality is paramount Hyperreality is more real than the real

o The image is something that is given, something that appears Successive phases {of the image}:

Reflection of a profound reality (corresponding) Masks and denatures a profound reality (ideology (Marxist sense)51

comes here) (showing by hiding) Masks the absence of a profound reality {Has the same connotations as

with the above} Has relation to any reality (proper entrance of simulation) Own pure simulacrum

Neo-Marxist Hyperreality is governed by signs

51 False consciousness

Oh, there are some descriptions of Postmodernism left! Tracing the question of the death of the real There is a strong current of anti-realism (started by Kant) (found its way

to the French intellectual scene o Structuralism & phenomenology collapsed under Derridas

critique

Here ends the notes. It was a lot of fun transcribing. Good luck in your exams! ^^

With sincerity,

Ai Shindou