Metaphor of the Spectre in Jacques Derrida’s Philosophy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37482/2687-1505-V194Keywords:
Jacques Derrida, metaphor of the spectre, fetishism, converted form, metaphysics of presence, metaphor of the virusAbstract
This paper aimed to analyse the meaning and contexts of the metaphor of the spectre in Jacques Derrida’s philosophy. It is emphasized that the notion of the spectre, which was previously inadmissible for philosophical thinking due to its vagueness, doubtfulness and a dash of mysticism, became popular as a metaphor owing to the widely debated “spectral turn” in philosophy. The research starts with analysing the influence of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud on Derrida’s use of the metaphor of the spectre. It is noted here that Marx viewed commodity fetishism as a variety of the so-called converted form, which in his works became the basis for interpreting the metaphor of the spectre. Freud correlated the notion of the spectre with the uncanny feeling, whereas in other respects he, like Marx, examined spectral effects in the context of systemic processes. For Derrida, who was on that point influenced by psychoanalysts Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok, the spectre is an anticipation of the future and thus a trace of something else, of a difference in the structures that seem undifferentiated. It is neither a spiritual nor a fully embodied remainder of self-identical presence that in a way haunts, unexpectedly disappears and returns again. In contrast to Marx and Freud, who believed that spectres could be exorcized, Derrida reckoned that one cannot get rid of them. According to Derrida, man is surrounded by endlessly deferred mediations, which engender nonremovable spectral effects. The latter, being similar to the viruses that distort communication, are, nevertheless, required by the system.
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