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I have read Ken Wilber’s ‘a brief history of everything’

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So self presence is say, ‘I’, which we ordinarily take to be ‘there’ as a fixed, coherent construct?

Any concept / signifier only makes sense in a system of difference and in relation to that which it is not, e.g. ‘I’ only makes sense in relation to it’s opposite or it’s ‘other’, therefore each sign cannot be fully present to itself as there is always a trace (or a play of traces) of that which it is not…that which is absent.

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This article is worth a read
http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-JOCP/cp26472.htm

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Absolute Truth and Relative Truth are two sides of the same moment

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Each moment, just as it is, is the sudden manifestation of absolute truth.

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Agreed, rights aren’t innate and have to be fought for, but the fighting for betterment is innate but it’s only known a posteriori….making it according to Kantian terminology ‘synthetic a priori’

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Personally, I see the development and adoption of Human Rights by various countries as a major step forward for respecting difference, especially in a world that is increasingly globalised and interconnected. It paradoxically transcends prejudice based on differences yet respects difference at the the same time….I feel that if there could ever be a common humanity or a new world religion then here would be the place to start, maybe it’s already started

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Interesting question as to whether Rights are innate or not, I’m not sure what you mean by innate in this context. Anyway, one could argue as Levinas does, that our own subjectivity is in some way defined by our ethical responsibility to the Other in the face-to-face, for him the ethical is pre-ontological and is therefore contra-Heidegger and National Socialism. Maybe ‘rights’ are a legislated extension of this responsibility and in that sense they are innate (in a relational sense) and yet constructed in response to actions / events. The idea of someone or something having ‘rights’ certainly derives from the ethical domain of life and in my view they are without doubt ‘good’ for society and for any sentient beings (in whatever form) for that matter. To ask whether something is good is in itself an ethical question, and maybe even the very call and response structure of questioning itself has an ethical dimension. An obvious example of the ‘goodness’ of rights (following the reference to National Socialism) would be the introduction of the European Convention on Human Rights after the abuse of state power resulting in atrocities of the 2nd World War when people were discriminated against and in some cases horrifically exterminated en masse merely on the grounds of prejudice against a persons race, beliefs, gender, sexuality, disabilities etc. The balancing of people’s rights do however create ethical dilemma’s and the law is an interpretive / hermeneutical art rather than a science, so we may not always get it right…sometimes all we have is the weight of probabilities, sometimes undecidables resulting in an impasse or an injustice, we know this, this is life, this has been the case for millennia, yet isn’t the whole of the legal system based in some way on the notion of rights and protecting rights and when judgements (ethical decisions based on the current law) are made correctly, do we not believe this to be Justice?

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I for one am totally proud of you brother…I was saddened when i heard of your descent into the murky world of heroin and crime not long after I’d moved out of the flat above you back in either 2006 or 2007….I know we had less contact after Alice was born, I do regret that and have sometimes thought that may have been a contributing factor…but even back then you stood out from the crowd you hung out with and were very much into your reading (something we shared and enjoyed together) so I simultaneously blame and thank Irvine Welsh a) for glamourising that culture into which you ventured and b) for giving you the template to transcend it (in the form of Renton) (so maybe unconsciously you knew this and had to play the character / archetype for a while).. we reconnected again just after your mum and my dad had passed, it was I feel a moment of synchronicity a time when I think you were ready for philosophy…looking back now….Nietzsche gave you the tools to start to reinvent yourself and Rubsy gave you the loving gestation space in which to transform (she is truly a blessing)….you’ve come a long way my friend, and the transformation continues, I love your enthusiasm for philosophy it has inspired me to return to the subject, to stay engaged and to keep reading, this is what I love about our friendship and although we now live in different cities I am grateful that we remain connected x

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http://www.crosscurrents.org/Crockettwinter2003.htm%5Bhr%5D
I highly recommend the John D. Caputo lecture on YouTube

The first 30 odd mins are the best

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I agree, nothing mind blowing as yet but to be fair, it takes a while to get a grasp of the terrain and the concepts employed that map out that terrain. However, reading prepares the ground from which insight flourishes, and although there are areas covered in the Routledge book that I am unfamiliar with, the Caputo essay and lecture (together) has for me build on previous knowledge and helped elucidated some of the unfamiliar concepts covered in the routledge book…Caputo (in the lecture) has a knack for putting post-structuralism into its intellectual context and why it disagrees with the claims of the structuralists ….Caputo’s essay inparticular is good for fleshing out Derrida’s importance in a number of fields / disciplines….his repeated reference of ‘the impossible’ is explained and it’s good for understanding Derrida’s reference to Deconstruction’s in relation to that which is ‘to-come’…also excellent for explaining Differance as a transcendental field (from which all forms are conditioned or constructed)…which when understood (if only partially) IS mind blowing….read the essay before listening to the lecture and let me know how you get on.[hr]It seems to me that this idea of Chaosmos from James Joyce referred to by Derrida, has Dialectical Monist overtones

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I highly recommend the John D. Caputo lecture on YouTube

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Also look at the Chapter entitled ‘Play and Messianicity’ before you move on to Lacan

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This feminist ideology / way of life is actually flourishing in the stateless north of Syria

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I’ve decided not to end it there with the (Routledge Critical Thinkers) book on Derrida, I’m now reading ‘A Companion to Derrida’ edited by Zeynep Direk and Leonard Lawlor (2014), which is the most intellectually up-to-date book on Derrida’s work available….in this book there is an excellent essay by John D. Caputo called ‘Derrida and the Trace of Religion’….I have have been aware of Caputo’s work for a while and I think this may help those members of the forum that want to deepen their introductory understanding of Derrida.

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