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From Socrates to Rousseau: Toward a Genealogy of Logocentrism in Nietzsche and Derrida

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Checkmate of Reason. AI art: symbolic expressioninsm Introduction The critique of reason as the gravitational center of Western culture has been developed through multiple genealogies. Jacques Derrida, in Of Grammatology , denounces "logocentrism": a structure of thought that privileges speech over writing, presence over absence, and origin over supplement. But long before Derrida, Friedrich Nietzsche had already sketched a structural critique of the dominance of rationality in the history of art, particularly in The Birth of Tragedy . His diagnosis of Socrates as a symptom of cultural decline and his suspicion of reason as a tyranny disguised as truth anticipate, in different terms, a proto-deconstructive approach. This article explores how Nietzsche and Derrida disarticulate two analogous hierarchical inversions: that of reason over instinct, and that of speech over writing. Socrates as Symptom: Nietzsche's Diagnosis Nietzsche does not view Socrates as a model...

The Geneva Circle: From Rousseau's Legacy to Saussure's Terminological Reform

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  Introduction French linguistic discourse has long grappled with the nuanced meanings of "la parole," "le langage" and "la langue," Rooted in Rousseau's Essai sur l'Origine des Langues, these terms traditionally mean what distinguishes man among the animals, what distinguishes nations from each other and the language of his country (Rousseau , 1781) . However, Ferdinand de Saussure's groundbreaking theories in the early 20th century reshaped their definitions, introducing intricate technical distinctions. Despite Saussure's efforts, the gap between theoretical precision and common understanding persists, urging a closer examination of these linguistic nuances. Traditional Meanings vs. Technical Terms From Rousseau's time to today, the meanings of "la parole," "la langue," and "le langage" in French have remained largely stable. "La parole" consistently refers to speech and individual ...