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.

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
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

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

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.

Kant is reacted by Hegel and Husserl.

But lets begin with Husserl first.

Husserl
Resuscitated the question of science
Started phenomenology/Father of Phenomenology8 (science of beginnings) (science of
essences9)
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 givenness 13))
Phenomenology begins with reflexion (to think about thinking)
We have to open consciousness
8 Back to the things themselves (concrete).

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

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.
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 ego 21 (presuppositionless self). After this one can examine an object in its purest form
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

21 The pure ego is the source of every mental act, a terminus. It should not be empirical.

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

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)
22 Apodicticity is indubitable. Because the Ideas is apodictic, it is indubitable.

23 The word phenomenology is present in Kant.

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: entities 29
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 horizon 31 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)

Finally, Hegel!

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
32 Truth is aletheia.

33 Method where Dasein reveals Being

34 Animal consciousness

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

ReligionPhilosophy36
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 philosophy 37 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

Lets move on to Bataille

Bataille
Reacting against Hegel
o The desire to be38 is both tragic and incessant.
35 Think about thinking; desiring desire

36 Consciousness is able to realize its absolute form

37 Marxism, Existentialism, Phenomenology

38 being to be whole (fulfillment)

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)
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, laughter 39
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

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.

Derrida
Famous for the project of deconstruction
o {Deconstruction is} from destruktion (from Heidegger 40)
Heidegger was not radical enough
39 Recognition that the sovereign is in control of himself

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
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 man 4243 [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

40 To return to the source, we have to destroy or circumscribe the history of ontotheology.

41 Speech community (convention)

42 Merely a product of structures

43 A reaction against human nature

{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
o

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.

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
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

Radicalized de Saussure
Prime target of deconstruction: metaphysics of presence 47 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
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

47 Everything has to be there

48 Logos (both being and knowing) (possible only in presence) (truth)

49 Thought
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.

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 theOh,
graveyard
signs.descriptions of Postmodernism left!
there areofsome

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

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

51 False consciousness

Hyperreality is governed by signs

Here ends the notes. It was a lot of fun transcribing. Good luck
in your exams! ^^
With sincerity,
Ai Shindou