language

rc-am rcollins at netlink.com.au
Fri Mar 19 17:56:51 PST 1999



>> We might as well go all the way and say that *any* concept is
impossible
>> to define. Doesn't Derrida theorize something along these lines?
Words
>> are only defined by reference to other words.
---------------------------------------------------------------------- --

kim il-sung wrote:


>The later Wittgenstein goes in this direction as well, in his
>anti-essentialism. W asks what do all games have in common? W cannot
find
>any commonality between games and there is thus no essence of the
word
>"game".

lyotard pretty well takes on this approach, but not derrida.


>It is imperative for Marxists to argue the opposite.<

the opposite of what? that words are defined by their reference to other words? how would you define a word without using other words?

Language is distorted by
>ideology and power relations. Language ,in at least in some minimal
sense,
>must hook onto a real state of affairs int he world so one can
identify,
>expose and rectify ideology and power relations. This can be done by
>comparing the real world with language that is both deliberately and
,often
>unknowingly to the speaker, being used to misrepresent the real
world in
>the name of dominant power relations. Hope this much is clear.

no. it's not clear at all that language is a distortion and reality is undistorted. aren't they both distorted? and, isn't it only possible to arrive at this definition of reality and language if you distort the character of both: ie., that language is not real and that reality does not include language?

angela



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