>I suspect Derrida's stuff on communication effectively denies a lot of
>this, and, in so doing, denies us the potential to engage with him in such
>democratic validation (communicative action).
My (ill-informed) understanding is that Derrida's stuff is more akin to Hume's inductive skepticism, in that he's not trying to deny that we can *do* this, he's just trying to point out that we shouldn't be so b****y sure of ourselves, because we can't actually prove that we mean what we say up to the standard which we claim we can. Just like Hume picks up his backgammon board, but with the intellectual humility to recognise that there is a sense in which he can't be certain that the dice won't spontaneously turn into canaries, and that sense is an important one,
>Much more simple a point is the fact that I do come over a bit
>self-doubting when demonstrably clever people (a) say things I don't
>understand about stuff I've actually thought about and (b) don't seem to
>think stuff that seems important to me is actually important at all.
Mebbe
>that's just me.
>Cheers,
>Rob.
Given the choice appears to be between saying "I don't understand this - I must be stupid" and "I don't understand this -- you must be stupid", I prefer Rob's method.
dd
___________________________________________________________________________
_____
---------------------------------------------------------
This email is confidential to the ordinary user of the
e-mail address to which it was addressed. If you are not
the intended recipient, please notify the sender
immediately on (44) 171 638 5858 and delete the message
from all locations in your computer. You should not copy
this email or use it for any purpose, or disclose its
contents to any person : to do so may be unlawful.
Email is an informal method of communication and is
subject to possible data corruption, either accidentally
or on purpose. Flemings is unable to exercise control
over the content of information contained in
transmissions made via the Internet. For these reasons
it will normally be inappropriate to rely on information
contained on email without obtaining written confirmation
of it.
----------------------------------------------------------
___________________________________________________________________________
_____
---------------------------------------------------------
This email is confidential to the ordinary user of the
e-mail address to which it was addressed. If you are not
the intended recipient, please notify the sender
immediately on (44) 171 638 5858 and delete the message
from all locations in your computer. You should not copy
this email or use it for any purpose, or disclose its
contents to any person : to do so may be unlawful.
Email is an informal method of communication and is
subject to possible data corruption, either accidentally
or on purpose. Flemings is unable to exercise control
over the content of information contained in
transmissions made via the Internet. For these reasons
it will normally be inappropriate to rely on information
contained on email without obtaining written confirmation
of it.
----------------------------------------------------------