Sunday, June 25, 2006

Difference

The question of the generality of the body surfaces in both Ricoeur and Wyshogrod. Ricoeur states that no general self can emerge in a world where humans can not name God's name. Ricoeur names this a deferred unity. For Wyschogrod difference grounds the possibility of generality and the subsequent moral demands of the body so unity is also deferred but generality can still emerge. The crucial importance of the possibility of difference and plurality that Ricoeur and Wyschogrod aver is amplified by MarĂ­a Lugones,
When I do not see plurality stressed in the very structure of a theory, I know that I will have to do lots of acrobatics—like a contortionist or tight-rope walker—to have this theory speak to me without allowing the theory to distort me in my complexity. When I do not see plurality in the very structure of a theory, I see the phantom that I am in your eyes take grotesque forms and mime crudely and heavily your own image. Don't you? When I do not see plurality in the very structure of a theory, I see the fool that I am mimicking your image for the pleasure of noticing that you know no better. Don't you?*1*

*1*{Lugones, 1991, Feminist ethics, viii, 300 p}, p. 43. Emphasis in original.

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