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Wholeness and its remainders: theoretical procedures of totalization and detotalization in semiotics, philosophy and politics
The PhD thesis is a piece of research into the nature of theoretical constructions in various academic disciplines. Drawing on a close analysis of some theoretical works in the field of semiotics, philosophy and politics, it distinguishes between totalizing and detotalizing ways of dealing with the phenomenal multiplicity which always confronts researchers when the construction of a theory is at stake.
Theoretical procedures of totalization constitute phenomenal multiplicity into self-enclosed wholes and efface their remainders. The thesis considers this kind of procedure from a temporal point of view, focusing on the theories of temporality elaborated by St. Augustine and Edmund Husserl and, from a systemic point of view, focusing on the theory of the (linguistic) system elaborated by Ferdinand de Saussure.
Martin Heidegger’s critique of the notion of ‘presence’ and Karl Marx’s critique of the notion of ‘value’ are examined as problematizing the main instruments of temporal and systemic totalization respectively. Still, both Heidegger and Marx lingered within the logic of totality, simply opposing a more authentic wholeness to an inauthentic one.
The works of Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida and Jean Baudrillard are, in contrast, considered in the thesis as representatives of detotalizing procedures which claim the impossibility of self-enclosed wholeness drawing on the inexhaustible remainders of any totalization and a general principle of constitutive openness. Particular attention is paid to those aspects of Yuri Lotman’s later thought – such as the notions of explosion, boundary and dialogue – which can be understood as instruments for theoretical procedures of temporal and systemic detotalization of this sort.
In the course of the thesis it becomes clear that, for political reasons, the commitment of this research is to detotalization. This commitment is illustrated in the last part of the work. There, the attempts at rethinking emancipative politics elaborated by three contemporary philosophers – Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou and Jacques Rancière – are analyzed as theoretical procedures of political detotalization from both a systemic and a temporal point of view.
Theoretical procedures of totalization constitute phenomenal multiplicity into self-enclosed wholes and efface their remainders. The thesis considers this kind of procedure from a temporal point of view, focusing on the theories of temporality elaborated by St. Augustine and Edmund Husserl and, from a systemic point of view, focusing on the theory of the (linguistic) system elaborated by Ferdinand de Saussure.
Martin Heidegger’s critique of the notion of ‘presence’ and Karl Marx’s critique of the notion of ‘value’ are examined as problematizing the main instruments of temporal and systemic totalization respectively. Still, both Heidegger and Marx lingered within the logic of totality, simply opposing a more authentic wholeness to an inauthentic one.
The works of Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida and Jean Baudrillard are, in contrast, considered in the thesis as representatives of detotalizing procedures which claim the impossibility of self-enclosed wholeness drawing on the inexhaustible remainders of any totalization and a general principle of constitutive openness. Particular attention is paid to those aspects of Yuri Lotman’s later thought – such as the notions of explosion, boundary and dialogue – which can be understood as instruments for theoretical procedures of temporal and systemic detotalization of this sort.
In the course of the thesis it becomes clear that, for political reasons, the commitment of this research is to detotalization. This commitment is illustrated in the last part of the work. There, the attempts at rethinking emancipative politics elaborated by three contemporary philosophers – Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou and Jacques Rancière – are analyzed as theoretical procedures of political detotalization from both a systemic and a temporal point of view.
330 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2008
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