This video points out the essence of what Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Derrida are trying to deal with. It’s very rare to see this deep insight and clarity. Not only on youtube but in the scholarly world!
There’s so much here in under 10 minutes! It is hard to find this kind of synthesis in a way that gets to the point and provides understanding. 8:42 We have tried to keep the secrets veiled, but being in denial has not saved us from the maladies of human life. There will always be those that are upset when someone points out that their sand castle will not withstand the waves. 🌊 Like this channel, Derrida was sincere, direct and unapologetic with his message. He did not fall in line subjugating himself to the lineage of philosophical forefathers, but rather he seemed to concern himself with trying to see through our modern human conundrum. Thanks for all the great quotes throughout the video!
This is extraordinarily helpful to see the thread connecting Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Derrida and their approaches to the western philosophical tradition and the German philosophical tradition in particular. In Habermas’ book “The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity” he skillfully obfuscates many of the philosophers that go against the mainstream thought, making it hard for a novice like me to see through what he is doing. Having these videos really helps to understand what is actually going on, see the scholarly tricks he is playing, and keep hold of the main thread connecting everything. The quotes from Derrida’s “Ontology and Deconstruction” and the commentary on them were particular helpful for me to put Derrida’s maligned concept of deconstruction into its intended/original context. Habermas is definitely channeling the Hegel when he distorts all the philosophers who critique the German way or anything that dares to be “developing outside of all logocentrism”. But when you fixate on a particular view and need to distort things to hold onto it, you will surely come to find out the hard way that your view is limited in space and time. Thank you for the wonderful videos. I look forward to them every week.
Thank you, this video improved my understanding of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Derrida. I’m grateful for this channels ability to provide insights into philosophy. I get trapped in the academic web of language that leaves me more confused than understanding, and I appreciate that this channel gets to the point! Thank you.
This video is amazing! It succinctly explains what Derrida’s deconstruction is in such a digestible manner. I really appreciate how the excerpts from Derrida’s writings are presented in the video -the accompanying narration clarifies and gives context to what Derrida means in each passage. Also, the positions of Nietzsche and Heidegger in the history of Western philosophical thinking are so beautifully illuminated. I often wondered what Derrida’s past students are doing now in the field of academic philosophy. This video gave me the answer to this - main-stream philosophers in academia must, for the sake of their own survival, disregard and disqualify what Derrida offered to us. The malady of phonocentrism is exposed, but academicians in Western philosophy are working so hard to cover things up. Aren’t they going to regret when the time comes for them to depart from this world? Don’t the pathologies all the brilliant German philosophers suffered from provide abundant enough evidence for the futility of remaining in the camp of ontology? I’m so thankful for the author of the videos showing us “family’s secrets.”
This must be the clearest summarization of Nietzsche’s true meaning of “God is Dead”. To me this phrase has been over used so much it has become a cliche, but I never knew it as anything beyond; the god of religion is dead, long live Rationality. Thank you for this video, I now have a better understanding of what Nietzsche was saying and the far reaching implications of “God is Dead”. This video brings back a memory of what my mother once said to me about philosophers, “It is not worth it to be educated, they all go crazy”. In this instance she was referring to Nietzsche, but being uneducated and ignorant didn’t help her…she died of Alzheimer’s. I prefer to live in reality and face the obstacles in my life. Thank you, I appreciate these videos!
From beginning to end, this clarifies so much, of so many ideas and viewpoints of philosophers like Derrida, Heidegger, Habermas, and Nietzsche within a short period of time. I appreciate this so much, as it would be extremely difficult (or pretty much impossible) for someone like me to endeavor to figure all that out and convey so clearly! 😅 Here, Derrida is contributing something so important to philosophy and language, and it’s disappointing that Habermas diverts Derrida’s main point by focusing on things besides, yet it’s not surprising at the same time. Thank you for also explaining “deconstruction” here 7:55, that it’s a way to understand philosophy and not to be confused with “destruction.” These videos certainly help us understand philosophy, so thank you very much! 👍
Thank you for providing this video that so succinctly explains the fundamental core of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Derrida’s work. This is tremendously helpful. This video also really helps bring to light for me, that as keyholder of power in Western philosophy, why Habermas is so critical of Derrida. If I am understanding correctly, Derrida is saying that the “deconstruction” of logocentrism is not just a quiet exercise to be carried out in the library, but also as being an intervention that takes place in the social and political fields, where the hegemony of logocentrism is “put to work”. It seems that if this exercise were to actually occur as Derrida suggest, that it may have major implications of change for Western society. And Habermas, as a champion of the established Western view and of the German tradition, cannot abide that what Derrida is saying could actually provide us with a fresh understanding that might help us to get out of the mess our society is currently in. As such, Habermas seems to desperately try to dismiss Derrida’s work as nonsense and tries to obfuscate the truth of what Derrida is saying, all in order to try to ensure that the established order that Habermas is part of, and power associated with it, are maintained in perpetuity. With this in mind, you really have to applaud Derrida for having the guts to stand up to Habermas, and others like him, and challenge the traditional views that have brought us to dead end we are facing today. Thank you again for providing these great videos. They really help to explain so much.
It is so funny to see how, in all this talk about deconstruction and the end of metaphysics, all the concepts employed are taken to be clearly fixed unfixing operations; on how all this discourse cannot apply itself to itself without becoming a complete joke...
This sort of comment is almost not worth addressing. The claims that “the concepts employed…. are taken to be fixed unfixing operations” and that “this discourse cannot apply to itself without becoming a complete joke” are cheap parlor tricks/language games that can be applied to nearly anything. More importantly these claims are completely false. You claim that the concepts employed are a “fixed unfixing,” which if I must attempt translate your pretentious and pseudo-intellectual terminology, means something like: all the concepts on this channel make absolute claims (fixed) to decenter absolute claims into more relativized views (unfixing); therefore, these concepts are in contradiction with the discourse surrounding them. The real translation of your ridiculous logic trap, which again, an adolescent could tell, is that the contents of these videos pose a threat to your personal, and most likely Hegelian, views. Therefore, YOU attack absolutely, using the same “fixed unfixing operations” which you claim to oppose. Therfore, you are the one who employs the contradictive method that you critique; you are a contradiction. Again, nothing but cheap parlor tricks and language games.
Damn, I love how the man who says that metaphysics is dead dares to diagnoses other philosophers with such a mysterious concept such as neurosis... it is so funny, man. It is like you have no selfconsciousness. You can't think back what you are doing; you are constantly doing exactly that which you say it is impossible... for others, right? Maybe that's your neurotic sympton: to proihbite to others what you actually do.
Your preconceived ideas are keeping you from comprehending what is actually being said here. Your lack of understanding shows as a tantrum of misspelling and incoherent sentences. Regardless of what you think this video is about, your comments reveal you do not understand the content and its intent.
@pedroph123- Your response completely misses the main point of this video. Western philosophy is the foundation that our society is built on. If philosophy is the love of wisdom, then that wisdom should lead you to a healthy, content life. Conversely, if your view of life leads to health problems, mental or physical, then maybe that “wisdom” is harming you, not helping you. If many of the philosophers espousing a particular philosophy are not healthy, it’s common sense to question the philosophy. If this philosophy is then exported to the world (or imposed on the world), what do you think will happen? If you are still unsure, just look at the news (or outside your window)- “radiant with triumphant calamity” indeed. Derrida is bringing up the idea of deconstruction to question if we are going down the right path. Are we not even allowed to raise the question? Apparently, many in the philosophy world think we are not. So much for Kant’s “Dare to know”. Given how ingrained/unchallenged these ideas are, to even ask the question requires courage, to do it in a public forum, even more so- as your misguided point proves. English may not be your native language, (Heaven help us if it is) so if I misinterpreted your comment, please excuse me. But if you are saying what it looks like you are saying, before you jump in with an attack, you better make sure you are understanding what is being said.
First of all, the death of metaphysics is not a newly created concept - metaphysics started to be questioned already by Heidegger and its hollowness has been fully exposed by the French poststructuralist philosophers such as Derrida and Foucault. As described in the video, the main-stream academic philosophers dare not to admit it. Secondly, about the neurosis exhibited by these prominent philosophers - there is no question that they were brilliant, but were they at peace with themselves? It is almost like they were overcompensating for their discontent of their own life by presenting the philosophical thesis of absolute truth. It is not “mysterious,” that kind of deep conflicts would cause physical/mental malady (e.g., Wittgenstein) or self-contradictory behavior (e.g., Kant). This video is straightforwardly demonstrating the futility of going after the “absolute” and what we ended up with because of that mindset - the video is exposing the neurosis of modernity. Without accepting that, we are stuck with all the problems created by the ideologies of the Western philosophical thinking.
Nietzsche declared that “God is Dead” (metaphysics is dead) a long time ago. It is outside of personal attacks or beliefs, it is more of a reflection of how Western society relates to metaphysics. If you have trouble understanding what is discussed, it is easier to ask a question than to attack anything you don’t understand.
Have you ever read the authors being criticized by Heidegger or Derrida? Or you just take their words and interpretations as the Absolute? I've never met a Derrida reader that had actually studied proper philosophy. And yes, I can see the cult-like mentality, even religious one, by the answers. Love the way you, flowers of good intention, beautiful souls against the Bad Western Thought, tried to humiliate me pointing out my english mistakes. So fucking funny, man.
