Re: RT list: co-presence and mutual manifestness

From: Luiz Carlos Baptista (lucabaptista@sapo.pt)
Date: Sat Jan 24 2004 - 15:43:49 GMT

  • Next message: mjmurphy: "Re: RT list: co-presence and mutual manifestness"

    Hi.

    Thanks for the references. I must confess that I don't know Derrida's work in detail. Do I miss something important?

    Your interpretation of my "avant la lettre" remark is interesting. But I just meant "beforehand"... :)

    I don't think that mutual manifestness is missing in written communication. For instance, this exchange establishes a mutual cognitive environment not only between you and me, but between us and all the other subscribers to the list who happen to read this message. Maybe writing, such as printing, broadcasting, computing, etc., as media of communication, are technologies which create mutual cognitive environments by their very use.

    Rgrds,

    Luiz Carlos Baptista
    lucabaptista@sapo.pt
    lucabaptista@hotmail.com
      What this actually reminds me of is H. Rousseau in his "Essay on the Origons of Language". This was the text of Rousseau that Derrida rescued from relative obscrurity in "Of Grammatology".

        I am interested in your last remark re. "avant la lettre". For Rousseau, this "mutual manifestness" is a feature of speech that is missing in written communication, which is where Derrida goes to town.

        Not that I endorse the latter's analysis, but the Goffman Rousseau connection seems quite clear in the passages you quote.

        Cheers,

        M.J.Murphy

        The shapes of things are dumb.
        -L. Wittgenstein

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