Politique de l’invention. Derrida s’expliquant avec Descartes

Abstract

Throughout the 80’s Derrida has explored the theme of invention. He has specifically studied Descartes’ conception and explained why it should be rejected. Indeed, it is grounded in both a theological and political conception of the subject, accomplishing the metaphysical position of “logocentrism” in the field of politics. However, with Psychè. Inventions of the Other, Derrida seems to hold a different point of view. He insists on the positive aspect of what he calls then “the invention of the same”, which, according to him, is the major thread of the techno-scientific invention (as well as of the philosophical production of truth) in modern times. While connected to this “politics of research”, Descartes’ project of a “universal language” is for the first time countersigned by Derrida. But such an acknowledgement should not preclude the fact that Descartes and Derrida deeply disagree on the economy of invention: firmly anticartesian, Derrida considers that inventio does not depend on any cogitatio since the event of invention is related to the play of what he famously calls “differance”. As long as such an event takes place within the res extensa, invention cannot be fully rationalized and will remain open to “chance”, understood as a supplementary effect of writing and a way to open a new conception of the community. Invention, through its excess, announces the coming of a new era.

Keywords

• analysis and synthesis
• deconstruction
• Derrida
• Descartes
• discovery
• history