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The Untranslatable to Come: From Saying to Unsayable

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Heidegger, Levinas, Derrida: The Question of Difference

Part of the book series: Contributions To Phenomenology ((CTPH,volume 86))

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Abstract

The word ‘saying’ is used in English to translate both die Sage in the work of Martin Heidegger, and le dire in that of Emmanuel Levinas. In this chapter I sketch the manner in which these two ‘sayings’ converge and diverge around the place of language. Broadly speaking, I argue that in their treatment of this word Heidegger and Levinas remain within the tradition of metaphysics insofar as the term ‘saying’ names. It names precisely a difference within the space of which the human subject dwells. For Heidegger; the space of the ontological difference both named yet concealed in the essence of language (Saying) or, for Levinas; the space of the ethical difference named as the primary signification of the one’s responsibility for the Other (saying). The naming of such a difference establishes limits which circumscribe a space or place for the subject and reduces that difference to something translatable. For Derrida, beyond such a difference between the one and the other, or between Being and being, is another difference. A difference that remains radically impossible. It is approached through numerous terms such as différance, supplement, trace, and so on in Derrida’s work. But this very multiplicity of terms itself reveals the radical impossibility of it being named as such. Here, having outlined the accounts of Heidegger and Levinas, I conclude by approaching this radically untranslatable/unnameable/unsayable in Derrida through the word Khōra.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    ‘Saying’ with a capital ‘S’ will be used to denote Heidegger’s die Sage, whereas ‘saying’ will be used for Levinas’s le dire.

  2. 2.

    Martin Heidegger, Unterwegs Zur Sprache [GA12] (Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1985). Trans. by Peter D. Hertz, On the Way to Language. New York: Harper & Row, 1971) [hereafter UZS] pp. 88–9/trans. p. 7.

  3. 3.

    UZS p. 238/trans. p. 119.

  4. 4.

    UZS p. 170/trans. p. 76 Translator Peter Hertz notes that Wesen would ordinarily be translated as ‘essence’ or ‘essential nature’ but that the context here “seems to demand the translation ‘being’” (UZS n. trans. p. 76). However this is in some ways unsurprising. As Werner Marx points out, Heidegger quite deliberately translates Eon/on (Being) and ousia (essence) by the same word, namely Anwesen (presenting/presenting process); using Anwesenden (those present) to translate eonta/onta (beings). These translations seek to subvert the history of the words being and essence which, for Heidegger, have become ‘empty’ or mere ‘general concepts’ in philosophy. See: Werner Marx, Heidegger and the Tradition. Trans. by Theodore Kisiel & Murray Greene (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1971) pp. 131–2.

  5. 5.

    UZS p. 170/trans. p. 77 A claim of course in line with Heidegger’s reformulation of ‘truth’ as alētheia rather than as adequatio.

  6. 6.

    UZS p. 242/trans. p. 123.

  7. 7.

    UZS p. 241/trans. p. 122.

  8. 8.

    UZS p. 243/trans. p. 124.

  9. 9.

    UZS p. 174/trans. p. 80 (my emphasis).

  10. 10.

    UZS p. 246/trans. p. 126.

  11. 11.

    UZS p. 244/trans. p. 125.

  12. 12.

    Martin Heidegger, ‘Identität und Differenz’. In Identität und Differenz [GA 11] (Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2006). pp. 27–80. Trans. by Joan Stambaugh, Identity and Difference. (New York: Harper & Row, 1969) [hereafter ID] p. 33/trans. p. 23.

  13. 13.

    ID p. 34/trans. p. 25.

  14. 14.

    UZS p. 190/trans. p. 95.

  15. 15.

    Martin Heidegger, ‘Der Spruch des Anaximander’. In Holzwege [GA 5] (Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1977). pp. 321–73. Trans. by David Farrell Krell & Frank A. Capuzzi, ‘The Anaximander Fragment’ in Martin Heidegger, Early Greek Thinking. New York: Harper & Row, 1975. pp. 13–58. [hereafter SA] p. 352/trans. p. 39.

  16. 16.

    Werner Marx, op.cit. p. 156.

  17. 17.

    UZS p. 191/trans. p. 95.

  18. 18.

    UZS p. 243/trans. p. 123–4.

  19. 19.

    UZS p. 244/trans. p. 124.

  20. 20.

    ID pp. 41–2/trans. p. 33.

  21. 21.

    UZS p. 251/trans. p. 131.

  22. 22.

    UZS p. 254/trans. p. 134 Heidegger uses ‘man’ and ‘he’; I try to avoid these terms by using ‘its’ where possible.

  23. 23.

    First published in 1919 and later published as part of the collection Das Neue Reich, in 1928 (see UZS p. 152/trans. p. 60).

  24. 24.

    UZS p. 152/trans. p. 60ff.

  25. 25.

    UZS p. 182/trans. pp. 87–8.

  26. 26.

    UZS p. 183/trans. p. 88.

  27. 27.

    Ibid.

  28. 28.

    UZS p. 184/trans. p. 89.

  29. 29.

    UZS p. 224/trans. p. 155.

  30. 30.

    UZS p. 114/trans. p. 29.

  31. 31.

    UZS p. 255/trans. p. 134.

  32. 32.

    UZS p. 223/trans. p. 154.

  33. 33.

    UZS p. 112/trans. pp. 26–7.

  34. 34.

    Werner Marx, op.cit., p. 240.

  35. 35.

    Jacques Derrida Points de suspension, Entretiens (Paris: Éditions Galilée, 1992). Trans. by Peggy Kamuf & others, Points… Interviews, 1974–1994 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995) [hereafter Points] pp. 139–40/trans. p. 131.

  36. 36.

    Emmanuel Levinas ‘La trace de l’autre’. In En découvrant l’existence avec Husserl et Heidegger (Paris: Vrin, 1994). pp. 187–202. [hereafter TdA] p. 188.

  37. 37.

    TdA p. 190 (my translation).

  38. 38.

    Emmanuel Levinas, Totalité et infini (Paris: Le Livre de de Poche, 2011). Trans. by Alphonso Lingis, Totality and Infinity. Pennsylvania: Duquesne University Press, 1969. [hereafter TI] p. 53/trans. p. 59 (Italics at source).

  39. 39.

    Emmanuel Levinas Éthique comme philosophie première. (Paris: Éditions Payot & Rivages, 1998). Trans. By Seán Hand & Michael Temple, ‘Ethics as First Philosophy’ In Seán Hand (ed.) The Levinas Reader, Oxford: Blackwell, 1989. pp. 75–87. [hereafter EPP] p. 88/trans. p. 81.

  40. 40.

    Jacques Derrida, L’écriture et la difference. (Paris: Les Éditions du Seuil, 1967). Trans. by Alan Bass, Writing and Difference. (London & New York: Routledge, 2001). [hereafter ED] p. 164/trans. p. 138.

  41. 41.

    Emmanuel Levinas, Autrement qu’être ou au-delà de l’essence. (Paris: Le Livre de Poche, 2010). Trans. by Alphonso Lingis, Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1981). [hereafter AQE] p. 17/trans. pp. 5–6.

  42. 42.

    AQE p. 78/tans p. 46.

  43. 43.

    AQE p. 83/trans. p. 49.

  44. 44.

    AQE p. 85/trans. p. 50.

  45. 45.

    TdA, p. 191 (my translation).

  46. 46.

    AQE p. 21 /trans. p. 8.

  47. 47.

    See AQE pp. 111–155 /trans. pp. 69–78.

  48. 48.

    AQE p. 23 /trans. p. 9.

  49. 49.

    AQE p. 23 /trans. p. 9.

  50. 50.

    AQE p. 23 /trans. (modified) p. 10.

  51. 51.

    AQE pp. 24–5 /trans. pp. 10–11.

  52. 52.

    Fabio Ciaramelli ‘The Riddle of the Pre-original’ in Adrian T. Peperzak (ed.) Ethics as First Philosophy: The Significance of Emmanual Levinas for Philosophy, Literature and Religion (Routledge, New York & London: 1995) pp. 87–94. p. 88.

  53. 53.

    AQE p. 21/trans. p. 8.

  54. 54.

    AQE p. 278/trans. p. 181 This notion of an ‘unsaying’ was already introduced in the preface to TI (p. 16 /tans. p. 30).

  55. 55.

    AQE pp. 17–18/trans. (modified) p. 6.

  56. 56.

    AQE p. 19 /trans. (modified) p. 7 my emphasis.

  57. 57.

    Jacques Derrida, Sauf le nom. (Paris: Galilée, 1993). Trans. by John P. Leavey Jr., ‘Sauf le nom’. In On the Name. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995. pp. 35–85. [hereafter SN] p. 63 /trans. p. 59.

  58. 58.

    Points p. 298 /trans. pp. 283–4: “In relation to whom, to what other, is the subject first thrown (geworfen) or exposed as hostage? Who is the ‘neighbour’ dwelling in the very proximity of transcendence, in Heidegger’s transcendence, or in Levinas’s? These two ways of thinking transcendence are as different as you wish. They are as different or as similar as being and the other, but seem to me to follow the same schema. What is still to come or what remains buried in an almost inaccessible memory is the thinking of responsibility that does not stop [ne s’arrête] at this determination of the neighbour, at the dominant schema of this determination.”

  59. 59.

    Jacques Derrida, Khōra. (Paris: Galilée, 1993). Trans. by Ian McLeod ‘Khōra’, in Jacques Derrida, On the Name (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995) pp. 88–127 [hereafter Khōra] p. 46 /trans. p. 104.

  60. 60.

    Khōra p. 25 /trans. pp. 93–4.

  61. 61.

    Khōra p. 15 /trans. p. 89.

  62. 62.

    Ibid.

  63. 63.

    Khōra p. 18/ trans. p. 90.

  64. 64.

    Khōra p. 30 /trans. p. 95.

  65. 65.

    Khōra p. 18 /trans. p. 90.

  66. 66.

    Khōra pp. 23–4 /trans. p. 93 Derrida notes that Heidegger too is led astray in attempting to name Khōra as the the place of the difference between Being and being in Introduction to Metaphysics.

  67. 67.

    Khōra p. 37 /trans. p. 97.

  68. 68.

    Jacques Derrida ‘Comment ne pas parler, Dénégations’. In Psyché: Inventions de l’autre (Paris: Éditions Galilée, 1987). pp. 535–95. Trans. by Ken Frieden, ‘How to Avoid Speaking: Denials’. In Budick, Sanford & Iser, Wolfgang (eds.) Languages of the Unsayable, The Play of Negativity in Literature and Literary Theory. (New York: Colombia University Press, 1989). pp. 3–70 p. 568 / trans. p. 37 (my emphasis).

  69. 69.

    Ibid. p. 567/Trans. p. 36.

  70. 70.

    Khōra p. 25/trans.p. 93.

  71. 71.

    Ibid.

  72. 72.

    Clearly an account of the political and justice far exceeds the scope of the current essay. However, it is intimately tied to the question of translation. The polis as place for Heidegger opens a primordial relation between man and Being and is the appropriate abode of them both. This place is governed by the ‘jointure’ of presence and absence, the order of Being – dike. (Heidegger, SA and Parmenides [GA 54] (Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1982). Trans. by André Schuwer & Richard Rojcewicz, Parmenides. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992). For Levinas, the arrival of the third party is the movement towards justice as the movement towards the ontological and thus calculable. For justice to be ethical it demands an unsaying to the primary signification of the infinite responsibility of the one to the other. (Levinas AQE, and L’au-delà du verset (Editions de Minuit, Paris: 1982); Ciaramelli, op.cit.). Yet for Derrida justice is always untranslatable and yet to come; called forth by Khōra. (Derrida, Khōra, in particular pp. 53–92 /trans. pp. 108–124). This paper then might offer a particular way into the question of justice between Heidegger, Levinas and Derrida.

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  1. Philosophical Studies, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

    Lisa Foran

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  1. Philosophical Studies, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

    Lisa Foran

  2. Institute for Philosophy, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Rozemund Uljée

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Foran, L. (2016). The Untranslatable to Come: From Saying to Unsayable. In: Foran, L., Uljée, R. (eds) Heidegger, Levinas, Derrida: The Question of Difference. Contributions To Phenomenology, vol 86. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39232-5_5

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