Metaphysics of presence

Presence, metaphysics of Term originally used by Heidegger to characterize the central mistake of western metaphysics. In his vision, metaphysics from Plato to Nietzsche postulates a self-knowing and self-propelling autonomous agent, for whom nature exists only in so far as it is present, which means useful. This metaphysical view renders authentic respect for nature impossible, and leads to the enslaved consumer societies of the age of technology. Post-structuralist critics and literary theorists appropriate the term for the view that there is a privileged fixed point at which the meanings of terms are anchored. This could lie in the intentions of the utterer or writer, or in some other semantic anchorage, such as the presence of a non-linguistic idea or the presence of an ostended thing. The favoured contrasting view is that there is nothing but text, or in other words that any attempt to fix meaning issues only in the production of more text, itself liable to a plurality of interpretations. The view bears affinities to the doctrine of the indeterminacy of radical translation, and to the Wittgensteinian discussion of the rule following considerations. See also reader response theory.

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2009)

The concept of the metaphysics of presence is an important consideration within the area of deconstruction. The deconstructive interpretation holds that the entire history of Western philosophy and its language and traditions has emphasized the desire for immediate access to meaning, and thus built a metaphysics or ontotheology around the privileging of presence over absence.

Deconstructive thinkers, like Jacques Derrida, describe their task as the questioning or deconstruction of this metaphysical tendency in philosophy. This argument is largely based on the earlier work of Martin Heidegger, who in Being and Time claimed the parasitic nature of the theoretical attitude of pure presence upon a more originary involvement with the world in concepts such as the ready-to-hand and being-with. Friedrich Nietzsche is a more distant, but clear, influence as well.

The presence to which Heidegger refers is both a presence as in a "now" and also a presence as in an eternal, always present, as one might associate with God or the "eternal" of laws of science. This hypostatized belief in presence is undermined by novel phenomenological ideas — such that presence itself does not subsist, but comes about primordially through the action of our futural projection, our realization of finitude and the reception or rejection of the traditions of our time.

This philosophy-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)