Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Material Causality, Dissemination, Publication

Because Derrida has had very little impact on contemporary mainstream American Philosophy, one of his interests, the concept of Dissemination, is not usually classified as 'Philosophy'.  So, not much consideration is typically given to the relevance of the concept to a more traditional one such as Kant's concept of Genius, one dimension of which, the impulse to creating an exemplary work, can be analyzed as an impulse to making it disseminable.  But, Kant himself preempts any such analysis by shifting focus to the "communicability" of the judgments of works of Genius.  Now, closer to an explicit treatment of Dissemination, and a likely source of inspiration for Derrida, is the subtitle of Thus Spoke Zarathustra--A Book for Everyone and No One.  But, though that subtitle is generally considered to be of specialized interest, it connotes a factor that is central to virtually the entire history of Philosophy, and, yet, has been otherwise completely ignored.  For, any publication, in any medium, by any Philosopher, is an act of Dissemination, the frequent irony of which being when the content of a work is oblivious to or questions the existence of others, e. g. The Meditations.  Now, Dissemination is a process of making Multiple an original Unity.  Hence, Dissemination is an example of Material Causality, so the unrecognized Philosophical relevance of the former is that of the latter, as well.

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