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    Derrida, "Difference," 262. Ibid., 263 Ferdinand de Saussure Quoted in Derrida, "Difference," 263. Ibid. Ibid

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    Ryan Alisaca
    Differance is neither a word nor a concept because it refers to the possibility of conceptualization and conceptual systems through differences, not a concept itself. Language operates through a network of differences between signs, where a sign's meaning is understood in relation to what it is not. However, the signified concept is never truly present, we only understand differences between signs. Differance allows for this play of differences but cannot be defined or pointed to without invoking more signs and differences, getting caught in infinite regress. Therefore, differance is a designated term without content that refers to what enables differences to be understood.

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    Derrida, "Difference," 262. Ibid., 263 Ferdinand de Saussure Quoted in Derrida, "Difference," 263. Ibid. Ibid

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    Ryan Alisaca
    27 views2 pages
    Differance is neither a word nor a concept because it refers to the possibility of conceptualization and conceptual systems through differences, not a concept itself. Language operates through a network of differences between signs, where a sign's meaning is understood in relation to what it is not. However, the signified concept is never truly present, we only understand differences between signs. Differance allows for this play of differences but cannot be defined or pointed to without invoking more signs and differences, getting caught in infinite regress. Therefore, differance is a designated term without content that refers to what enables differences to be understood.

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    Differance is neither a word nor a concept because it refers to the possibility of conceptualization and conceptual systems through differences, not a concept itself. Language operates through a network of differences between signs, where a sign's meaning is understood in relation to what it is not. However, the signified concept is never truly present, we only understand differences between signs. Differance allows for this play of differences but cannot be defined or pointed to without invoking more signs and differences, getting caught in infinite regress. Therefore, differance is a designated term without content that refers to what enables differences to be understood.

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    27 views2 pages

    Derrida, "Difference," 262. Ibid., 263 Ferdinand de Saussure Quoted in Derrida, "Difference," 263. Ibid. Ibid

    Uploaded by

    Ryan Alisaca
    Differance is neither a word nor a concept because it refers to the possibility of conceptualization and conceptual systems through differences, not a concept itself. Language operates through a network of differences between signs, where a sign's meaning is understood in relation to what it is not. However, the signified concept is never truly present, we only understand differences between signs. Differance allows for this play of differences but cannot be defined or pointed to without invoking more signs and differences, getting caught in infinite regress. Therefore, differance is a designated term without content that refers to what enables differences to be understood.

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    4. Why is differance “neither a word nor a concept” ?

    A word is sign which is understood as a something which represents the presence of a


    certain thing which it is supposed to signify. Furthermore, a word is a sign which functions more
    specifically in a determined manner as something which represents presence in language. 1 This
    signified thing is the concept. This concept, however, is nothing but a representation of a thing in
    the mind which still basically a linguistic representation. This representation is therefore called
    an “acoustical image”.2
    Now, Saussure tells us that in order that we make language intelligible to us, its words
    must be understood in a system of play of differences. After all, there has been no word or sign
    that has preceded language. With the establishment of language arose signs which can only be
    differentiated through the network of differences among these signs.3 Hence, we know that a sign
    is bat (and is supposed to bring us the presence of what a bat is) because it is not ‘cat’, ‘rat’,
    ‘mat’, or ‘hat’. It is precisely this network which allows us to conceive of the differences present
    among signs. Consequentially, these differences also allows us to understand what kind of
    presence is supposed to be represented by these signs, that is, the sign ‘bat’ is supposed to have
    the power to tell us what a bat is on account of the distinctions which allows bat to be read as
    ‘bat’ and not ‘cat’ or ‘mat’.
    This however is not the case as the signified concept is never actually present in the
    representation of the signified. Since words are understood according to a play of differences in
    am entangled network, then what we actually know are merely differences in signs and not the
    things themselves.4 This is still the case when we think of bats. After all, what is in our minds are
    still a manifestation of language. In all actuality, we think of words. And without words, we
    cannot think at all. If this difference among signs in a network allows us to understand the signs
    themselves, then we are presented with a problem when two signs do not have a difference at all.
    A ‘bat’ might be the animal bat, or it might be the baseball bat. We therefore set out to define the
    kind of bat that we are purportedly referring to, i.e. the bat used in a baseball game. But all we
    have here once again are more signs which are, once again, understood according to the play of
    differences of signs in a network. The sign of a ‘bat’, therefore, does not really bring to us a
    representation of the presence of a bat, a signified bat if you will. Instead, what we are given in
    our understanding of the word ‘bat’ are more words which can only be understood by, yet again,
    a play of differences in network.
    But what allows for these differences in play? Differance is precisely that. Difference is,
    in Derrida’s own words, “no longer simply a concept, but the possibility of conceptuality, the
    conceptual system and process in general.”5 Differance, however, does not have a definition. It
    is simply the designated term, devoid of any content whatsoever, for that movement by which
    1
    Derrida, “Difference,” 262.
    2
    Ibid., 263
    3
    Ferdinand de Saussure quoted in Derrida, “Difference,” 263.
    4
    Ibid.
    5
    Ibid.
    becomes understood according to differences.6 We cannot point it out and define it because
    doing so would lead us the regress of the signified and signifiers and the difference at play,
    something which is not differance but is made possible by whatever it is makes them possible
    (call it differance).

    Word count: 587 (excluding direct quotations)

    6
    Derrida, 264.

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